


Listen to Our Hearts ('Cause They're Getting Louder)

by hoodhollow



Category: Ever After High
Genre: F/F, Filmmaking, Modern AU, Partially epistolary, Sappy Ending, Slice of Life, art school au, sound design
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-12 05:05:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9056572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoodhollow/pseuds/hoodhollow
Summary: Raven Queen is an art school student and poor because she just switched majors, basically wasting about three years of tuition. She finds a place downtown that is ridiculously cheap and all utilities are paid, which is just unheard of, she doesn’t even care if her new roommate is a serial killer.Apple White is not a serial killer, she’s a film major, which is almost as deadly and three times as crazy.





	1. Preproduction 1-1

**Author's Note:**

> Something I wrote during NaNoWriMo so enjoy this sentimental piece of cheese.
> 
> I'm also hoodhollow on Tumblr if you want to chat.

The door was unlocked, and swung open with the lightest tap of Raven’s knuckles.

“Hello? Anyone home?”

No answer.

Raven heaved her backpack higher up onto her shoulder, double-checked that the hatchback was locked, and stepped cautiously into the apartment. Flagstone floor, weathered wooden stairs, wrought iron in the windows casting purple shadows in the fading light. She lifted her chin and projected her voice to fill the space.

“Hi, I’m Raven, I’m supposed to do a walk-through today?”

She paused to listen, and received nothing more than silence in response.

“Okay,” Raven said to herself, and sat down on the stairs. She thought about going back outside, but the air conditioning was too enticing to leave. Her hopefully-soon-to-be roommate wouldn’t mind, probably. Or maybe she would. First impressions had been favorable but some things couldn’t be judged with a cell tower as a go-between.

Well, it was an easy problem to solve, now that she was thinking about it. Raven pulled out her phone, shot off a quick text, and tucked it back into her pocket. Full bars, that was a plus.

The door burst open. Raven jumped violently, somehow tangled her backpack in the banister, and flopped back down like a beached fish.

“Hello, you must be Raven!” said the girl in the doorway. “I’m sorry I’m late, dinner with my parents ran a little long. Did I keep you waiting?”

“No, it’s fine,” Raven said, hoping to hell and back that her mishap had gone unnoticed. The direction of the door hinges meant she still had a chance. “And you’re Apple, right?”

“Right!” Apple was small and blonde, with round cheeks and red lipstick, impeccably applied. Her eyes were bright blue, and she wore a lace dress and six-inch heels with the ease of an old sweater.

In conclusion, Raven felt very inadequate in her scuffed up skinny jeans, and mildly surprised that she hadn’t been catfished after all.

“Why don’t we get started with the tour?” Apple offered a hand to help her up. Raven took it, trying to ignore the forming bruise on her hip. “There’s the guest bathroom, and the kitchen and living room are through here…”

They were located in the historic district, buildings covered in quoins and pinnacles and a million other things Raven had learned about but promptly forgotten. The apartment—more of a row house, really—was three stories tall, with an in-unit washer and dryer and a small fire pit in the back. Raven would have the top floor to herself, and was pleased to find that it came with its own private bathroom.

“So, what do you think?” Apple asked.

“It looks great,” Raven said, silently wondering how her luck was this good. Maybe the place was haunted. There was no other way to explain such low rent.

“Do you have any questions?”

“Um.” Raven thought back to the various “first apartment” checklists she’d found online. “Utilities?”

“Water, sewer, trash, electric, cable and Wi-Fi,” Apple said. “Netflix, I suppose; I’m logged in on the TV.”

“And that’s…”

“Covered,” said Apple.

Covered. Holy shit. Raven said, “When can I move in?”

*

_Good news, Internet, I am no longer a homeless bum. Better news, my apartment is amazing??? Like, actually too good to be true. It’s in a great location, it’s cheap, and my roommate is paying for all the utilities. She also dragged her boyfriend over at 8 PM with no notice to help me move furniture. Can a person really be this nice?? She may be a serial killer luring in her next victim. I’ll make sure to keep you updated, Internet. And if I do get murdered, maybe this blog will be a helpful record for the police._

_Haha, she’s probably just a kind soul who’s helping me out of the goodness of her heart._

_…Call the cops if you don’t hear from me in a week._

*

A week of introductory lectures and syllabi review left Raven feeling bombarded with white noise, dreary and scattered and liable to fall asleep at any moment. She sat on the ridiculously comfortable couch with her cup of instant noodles and tried not to drift off while it cooked.

“Raven!” Apple came down the stairs, heels clicking on the flagstone. Raven had never seen her barefoot, or in anything shorter than four inches. “How was class?”

“Full of sophomores, as usual,” Raven said. She stared dubiously into the broth. Had it been five minutes yet? The noodles separated when she poked them with her fork; she figured it was close enough.

“Oh, are you a transfer?” Apple busied herself with the refrigerator.

“I just switched majors,” Raven said. It was a bit late in the game, as her mother had told her multiple times with increasing aggravation, but Raven had been adamant about getting out of architecture. At least the school was happy to take her tuition for another few years.

“What are you in now?”

There was a sudden bang from the foyer, and Raven choked on her mouthful of noodles.

“Hey, Apple! Open the door, my hands are full!”

By the time Raven could take a breath without showering the table in artificial chicken flavor, Apple was already showing three women into the apartment. “Raven,” she said, “this is Briar, Blondie, and Ashlynn.”

Briar could have arrived straight from the beach, with tanned skin and large sunglasses resting casually on pink-streaked brown hair. Blondie’s ruffled dress was more formal, and brought porcelain dolls to mind. In the middle, Ashlynn somehow managed to strike a balance between nature spirit and magazine cover.

“Everyone, this is my new roommate, Raven.”

Raven was in her pajamas. It was one thing to be so casual around her roommate; there was a certain point where one just stopped caring about that sort of thing, and for Raven, it had been two days ago when Apple had folded her underwear. Company was a completely different story, especially when she was making a first impression, especially when they were _so well-dressed_.

“Hi, nice to meet you,” she said, already up and edging towards the stairs. “I’ll just give you guys the room.”

“Oh, no, Raven, you don’t need to leave,” Apple insisted. “This is your space too.”

Technically, since Apple was paying two-thirds of the overall rent, she held claim to two-thirds of the overall apartment. There was no chance to point this out.

“Yeah, there’s plenty to go around,” Briar said, and punctuated her statement by lifting the lasagna pan she held in her hands.

Raven, too busy with her pajama-induced meltdown, had missed the food entirely. She looked at Briar’s lasagna and Ashlynn’s lettuce wraps and Blondie’s Crock Pot of soup, then thought about her cup noodles, which were in fact overcooked.

“If you’re sure you don’t mind,” she said.

The lasagna and Ashlynn were vegan. All of the food was homemade and delicious, which seemed somewhat unfair yet somehow not unexpected, birds of a feather and all that. Apple had a capacity for housework unmatched by anyone Raven had ever seen.

The conversation moved beyond mumbled compliments when the plates were about half clean.

“Raven, you never finished telling me which major you switched into,” Apple said.

Briar laughed. “Careful,” she said to Raven, “one wrong word and your fate will be sealed forever.”

“Um.” Raven frowned. Something about the warning made her feel like she’d just stepped onto gang turf while colorblind. “Is there a wrong major?”

“Of course not,” Ashlynn said encouragingly.

“It’s just Briar being Briar.” Blondie leaned forward, eyes intent. “Go on.”

Raven looked at Briar, who made an expression of exaggerated fear before a glance from Apple had her innocently sipping her drink. Apple, Blondie, and Ashlynn waited expectantly.

Raven said, “Sound design.”

Apple’s gasp was sudden and violent. Raven gave her a look of alarm.

Briar shook her head and said, “Now you’ve done it.”

*

_So I’m still alive. And I guess my roommate isn’t a serial killer. She is a film student, though, which is pretty scary in its own way. I told her I was taking sound design and she practically begged me to do production sound for her senior film. Apparently it’s not a problem that I don’t have any experience with that kind of thing? Three of her friends came over for dinner and they’re all involved too, so I don’t know if she’s just desperate or what._

_Maybe I’m hoping that’s the case? Because her friends are all like models or something so there’s a lot to live up to already._

_Anyway, Roommate just needs someone to put on the paperwork for now, since filming doesn’t start until next quarter. I figure I probably owe her a favor anyway, what with the whole apartment thing, so I can at least let her stick my name on the project until I can recommend someone better to replace me._

_I mean, I literally just started my major classes, so it’s not like finding anyone is going to be hard._

* 

The sound design building was a twenty-minute walk away and had a parking lot the size of a postage stamp. These things being as they were, Raven found it far less trouble to bite the bullet and put on her tennis shoes every day. Unfortunately, there were factors that she’d neglected to account for.

“Of all the days to forget an umbrella,” she said, as if she habitually carried an umbrella in the first place. Well, it was only drizzling; maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. She pulled up her hood and walked fast.

Halfway back, the storm began in earnest. Raven cursed and ran for shelter, dodging puddles and pedestrians with more foresight than her. She turned up a flight of stairs, shoes clanging on each metal step, then swiped her school ID to unlock the door.

The architecture building was open and airy, with high ceilings and large windows that gave Raven a perfect view of how sorry she would be if she even took a step outside. She loitered by the door, dripping self-consciously. Her stomach growled. There were worse places to be trapped. Some buildings didn’t even have vending machines.

“Raven Queen.”

Raven turned to meet the heavy footsteps coming down the hall. “Hi, Professor Badwolf,” she said.

He stopped a few feet away, looking her over with eyebrows raised. “Shouldn’t you be in my Capstone class?”

With his large frame, thick beard, and untrimmed hair, Badwolf looked more like a hermit or outdoorsman than a professor of anything. He was tough, and assigned the most homework out of everyone in the department. Raven had quietly grumbled about him since sophomore year, but found that her enmity had waned once she was no longer required to take his classes.

“I’m not majoring in architecture anymore,” she said. “I just came in because of the rain.”

Badwolf looked out the window and laughed. “Follow me,” he said, turning back down the hall.

Raven hesitated. He glanced over his shoulder and she hurried to catch up. Badwolf moved fast; it took a bit of jogging before she pulled even with him.

“So where are you now?”

“Sound design,” Raven said.

Badwolf nodded. “Makes sense.”

Did it? Raven smiled wryly. “So I did that badly, huh?”

“You had potential,” Badwolf began. Raven eyed him suspiciously. “Well, you were okay. Never paid attention, though, not even for the lecture on controlled demolitions. If that doesn’t interest you, then there’s nothing you can do about it.”

If only everyone could be so reasonable.

They reached the faculty offices. Badwolf ducked inside and returned with a head of lettuce. Raven stared at it, nonplussed.

“Go on.” He offered it to her.

Raven hesitantly took the lettuce and realized that it was in fact a cleverly disguised umbrella.

“You’re giving this to me?”

“It’s from the lost and found,” he said.

“Then doesn’t it belong to someone?”

“Not anymore.” Badwolf waved off her concern. “Professors are allowed to take this stuff.”

Well, they probably needed more incentives than the paycheck. It was a really nice umbrella though. Someone was probably missing it. Raven stared at it, then looked outside. Lightning flashed.

“Good luck in sound design,” Badwolf said when he’d walked her to the door.

“Thanks,” Raven said. She darted into the storm with the stolen goods held overhead.

The next day, she stopped by the architecture building after class again. Professor Badwolf saw her dropping the lettuce umbrella off in the lost and found, and laughed at her as she escaped.

*

_Did you know they make umbrellas that look like lettuce? So weird._

*

There was a school-owned coffee shop less than half a mile from the apartment that looked like someone had driven a double-decker bus through the wall. This gimmick was apparently interesting to tourists, but Raven found that the inside of the bus was fairly cramped once the espresso machine was installed.

“Order’s up!” Maddie passed her a latte and a toasted croissant, and Raven ferried it through the bus window.

“Have a nice day,” she said.

Her rent may have been unnaturally cheap, but she still had expenses, and was hired at the coffee shop after applying through the work study program. They didn’t require any relevant job experience; she could only hope that her good luck with finding work would extend to after graduation.

“Okay!” Maddie appeared next to Raven. “That’s about the end of the lunch rush, so it’s time for the next big step. I’ll just watch, and you get to make the drinks now!”

Raven grimaced at the back counter, lined with bottles and jars and carafes of ingredients. Who came up with the idea of fancy coffee in the first place? She liked a good latte as much as the next person but this was just unnecessary.

They spent ten minutes reviewing different kinds of espressos before the next customer came in. He was thin and gawky, with messy brown hair and hipster glasses, and judging by the anime t-shirt, probably coming from the nearby sequential art building.

“Hi, what can I get started for you?” Raven said.

The boy froze. “Ah…” he said.

Raven waited patiently as he examined the menu, eyes occasionally flicking back to her then immediately away. Finally, the boy said, “A mocha?”

“Hot or iced?”

“H-hot.”

“And what size?”

“Uh, medium.”

Raven punched it in. “That’ll be four ninety-six.”

He fumbled his ID out of its holder, blushing furiously when it slipped and fell to the floor. Raven absently noted his name as she swiped it and handed back his receipt. Dexterous Charming. Ironic. She turned away to make his drink.

“So, ah, are you new here?”

Raven studied the levers on the espresso machine. “Yeah.”

“Cool. That’s cool. So. What’s your name?”

“Raven.” Was it one or two pumps of mocha syrup?

“Okay.” Dexterous fell silent, and Raven managed to finish his drink without dropping or spilling anything. She passed it through the window and he took it with a stuttered thank you.

“Have a nice day,” she said.

“You too!”

Raven waited until he had left the coffee shop, holding his cup carefully in both hands, before turning to Maddie. “So, how did I do?”

“Great!” Maddie said cheerfully, and Raven sighed in relief. “Oh, except you gave him a large instead of a medium.”

Raven groaned.

“Don’t worry about it,” Maddie said, patting Raven reassuringly on the back. “Although the stoic act might have mixed up your signals a bit.”

Raven blinked. “What?”

*

_So today was my first day at my new job. I think it went pretty well. My supervisor is easy to get along with, which is great. I wonder if she’s maybe sampling the product when I’m not looking, though, because she was hyped up for the entire six-hour shift._

_Also, she knows so many jokes. Like, she was telling them nonstop the last hour and I’m pretty sure she’s not even close to done. I guess I’ll have plenty of time to find out next week._

_P.S. Internet, I work at a COFFEE SHOP. The product is CAFFEINE._

*

It was six in the morning on a Saturday and Apple was knocking at her door.

“Whhtt?” Raven grumbled into her pillow.

“Raven?” Apple called. “Are you awake?”

“Nnno.”

A bird chirped.

“Raven, how are you sleeping through this?”

Apple’s voice was closer now. Raven rolled over and pulled the pillow over her head.

“Raven, wake up.”

The bird chirped again.

“Wh?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

Raven tried again. “Why?”

“I need your help.”

Raven groaned and sat up.

Chirp.

“Someone shut up that bird,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

“That’s not a bird,” Apple said, “that’s the smoke alarm.”

Raven was suddenly wide awake. “We’re on fire?!”

Okay, not completely awake yet.

“The backup battery is dead,” Apple explained. “I wanted to fix it myself, but…I can’t reach it.”

Raven blinked at her roommate for a long moment, then got up and trudged downstairs. Apple’s room was cute and compact, with photographs plastered over the walls. Raven had seen it before, on that first brief tour, but she hadn’t been able to look closely. She did notice that the desk had been cleared and dragged out from its spot against the wall.

Chirp.

Raven glared at the smoke detector and climbed up onto the desk. “Okay, how does this work?”

“It should just twist off,” Apple said.

It did twist off, but the module was also wired into the ceiling and wouldn’t dangle more than a couple inches away.

“What,” Raven grumbled, “is the point of having a battery operated device that _also_ runs on wires?”

Chirp.

Whatever the reason, it meant that she had to work with her arms stretched over her head, unable to see what she was doing. There was a good deal of angry muttering and some stifled curses (swearing in front of Apple made Raven feel unreasonably guilty), but she eventually managed to swap out the batteries and get the thing put back together.

They watched it for a full minute before they were satisfied by its continued silence.

“Thank you,” Apple said as Raven helped her move the desk back.

“No problem,” Raven said, going back for the knickknacks scattered across Apple’s bed. She picked up a photograph—framed, unlike the ones on the walls—and examined it. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a blindingly confident smile—he was the kind of handsome that led to swooning in the hallways, accentuated by the letter jacket he wore. “Is this your brother?”

“Who?” Apple asked, and Raven turned the photo to show her. “Oh! No, that’s my boyfriend Daring.”

Boyfriend. Huh.

“He lives in LA, but you’ll get a chance to meet him next quarter,” Apple continued. “He’s my actor.”

Ah, yes, the senior film that Raven still needed to quit at some point. “Your only actor?”

Apple placed her laptop on her desk and stepped back with a pleased smile. “For now.”

*

_Roommate update: did I mention she was short? Like, wake me up at six on a weekend because she can’t reach the ceiling while standing on a desk short. Okay, so it’s not her fault the smoke alarm battery died, and I guess it’s not her fault we have ten-foot ceilings either._

_Side note: why are ladders SO EXPENSIVE?_

_Also, for the record, the guy that helped move in my furniture isn’t Roommate’s boyfriend. I guess she just knows guys with pickup trucks who’re willing to drop everything to help out a damsel in distress. Her actual boyfriend lives across the country but is coming here to act in her film._

_I haven’t made much progress on the replacement recruitment front. Seems like most of the really good sound designers have already been picked up for other crews, and they can’t commit until Roommate schedules concrete dates. That’ll happen when she gets her lead actor, which will hopefully be tomorrow! My job at the coffee shop is pretty time-consuming, so I’ll be glad to get this off my plate._

_I’ll let you know how it goes, Internet._

*

Raven entered the apartment on Sunday night to find the living room unrecognizable. There was paper everywhere, neatly clipped stacks on the coffee table and large sheets tacked to the walls with messy shorthand written in thick black marker. The television, a DSLR on a tripod, and someone’s laptop had been jury-rigged together in a tangle of cables and adapters. The couches were covered in young filmmakers, three Raven knew and one she hadn’t seen before.

“Raven!” Apple looked up at the sound of the door.

“Hey.” Raven went into the kitchen. “What are you guys up to?”

“Final casting decisions,” Briar said, twirling the marker between her fingers. She pointed to an unintelligible scribble on one sheet of paper. “We’ve got them all picked out, aside from our lead.”

Blondie hit a few keys on the Frankenstein laptop. “Yeah, and we’re just about to go over the last few auditions again.”

“Do you want to watch?” Apple asked. “A fresh perspective is always helpful.”

Raven said, “I don’t even know what your film’s about.”

“Oh!” The last guest shot upright and out of her seat. She had long red hair tied off in a complex braid and held a notebook in both hands. “Give me your email and I’ll invite you for read access to the script.”

“Holly’s our writer,” Apple said. “Anyway, the story is an adaptation of Snow White.”

“And you’re looking for Snow?” Holly’s vigil next to the sink put one too many people in the tiny kitchen; Raven reluctantly set down her glass of juice to write in the offered notebook. “Yeah, I guess I’ll watch.”

Blondie played the clips. There were five actors—already narrowed down from the twelve that had auditioned, Apple explained—and each had two or three takes of a different short monologue. As she’d suspected, Raven couldn’t tell them apart by performance. The only actor who stood out was Ashlynn, and only because Raven had known her beforehand.

The other four crew members, though, easily crossed three names off the list using some esoteric criteria that went right over Raven’s head. Soon, Ashlynn and one other girl were the only candidates left.

“Darling Charming,” Blondie read from one of the forms on the coffee table. “Huh, she’s an accessory design major, senior. She doesn’t have any other commitments for winter quarter so scheduling shouldn’t be a problem.”

“What about her personality?” Apple said. “Do you think she’d work well with us?”

Briar said, “You weren’t concerned about personality when we were casting the queen.”

Apple shook her head. “This is different. Snow White is the lead; her casting has to be perfect. We all know we can work with Ashlynn, and she can handle the animals and outdoor shoots.”

“Ashlynn is a classic princess,” Holly agreed. “But is that what we want?”

Apple frowned thoughtfully at the screen, which was now displaying side-by-side headshots of Ashlynn and Darling. “Blondie, Briar, what do you think?”

Briar put her hands up. “Nope, you already got my commentary, you’re not turning this into a vote.”

“Briar’s right,” Blondie said. “You’re the director, it’s your vision. In the end, you’re the one who has to be completely happy with this casting.”

Apple turned towards Raven. “What about you, Raven? Do you have anything to add?”

Raven stared at the headshots.

She shrugged, and said, “Go with your gut.”

*

_So some of you were asking about my hyped up supervisor’s jokes. Well, here is an actual conversation that she had with a customer today:_

_Customer: Is the coffee fresh?_  
_Hype: Super fresh! I hope it doesn’t taste like dirt._  
_Customer: What?? Why would it taste like dirt?  
_ _Hype: Because it was GROUND a couple minutes ago!_

_And then the customer sort of laughed uncomfortably and ordered tea instead. I’m not sure this is the way to run a business, but Hype has been working longer than me, so I guess she knows best._

_Oh yeah, the casting call. Roommate has everyone picked out but the lead, and she’s still waffling between one of her friends and this other girl that no one knows. I have to say, I will be vastly more confident in this project if she goes for the other girl. I mean, is there anyone on the crew that she wasn’t friends with first? But I’m not the director, so we’ll see. Updates forthcoming._

*

Apparently, working on a film crew required signing a contract.

“The top one states you’re committed for the listed time frame,” Apple said, putting a stapled packet on Raven’s desk. “Then there’s the liability release for the school, and the photo release—we won’t be actively filming you, but I like to have my bases covered, maybe for promotional or behind the scenes material. And the last one is just scheduling and contact information for my records.”

Raven looked at the neatly typed paperwork. “Wow. This is pretty official.”

“Preproduction is all about attention to detail,” Apple said. “You can make copies or whatever you want, I just need them back by the end of next week.”

“Okay,” Raven said. “No problem.”

It was horrible timing. Midterms were coming up, which meant Raven found herself tied to a workstation more often than not. To make matters worse, the strictly enforced building hours meant no all-nighters, and she had to squeeze in every available moment to finish her projects before their deadlines. This left little time for pitching Apple’s project to a more senior student in the department, and the desperate environment of sleep-deprived procrastinators wasn’t exactly helping.

And then, before Raven knew it, the week had passed and Apple was knocking on the door.

“Raven,” she said, “did you get a chance to sign that paperwork?”

Raven looked at the untouched packet on her desk. How terrible would she be if she just resigned? Pretty terrible. She grabbed a pen.

“You can come in,” she said, flipping through the first contract. “Sorry it slipped my mind, but I can do it right now.”

Apple came to stand next to Raven’s chair. Raven signed the contract, then the liability release, then the photo release.

“Um,” said Apple, “have you read those over yet? Because you should probably do that before you sign them.”

“Why?” Raven asked. The contact information was taking a little more time, and she tried to hurry it along. A four ended up looking more like a nine; Raven went over it a couple of times before giving up. Whatever, if Apple couldn’t figure out her address they had bigger problems than illegible handwriting. “Are you going to short me?”

“Of course not!” Apple said, affronted.

“I don’t see how you could, anyway,” Raven said. “I’m doing this for experience, not money.” She filled in the last phone number with a flourish and handed the whole stack off to Apple.

“It’s a good habit to get into,” Apple said, with that slight lift in her tone that indicated a lecture. After three separate infractions for not separating the recyclables, Raven could say she knew it pretty well. “Especially when you do start finding paid work. Letting employers get away with shady business practices just lowers their expectations for the next hire.”

“Wow, okay.” Raven gestured for Apple to return the paperwork, and pulled out her phone to snap a quick photo of each page. “I’ll look at them later. You’re the kind of person who actually reads the terms of service, aren’t you.”

Apple huffed.

“That’s not a denial,” Raven said.

“It’s important to know your rights!” Apple gathered the papers and turned to leave. “And don’t think I haven’t realized you’re never looking at those photos again,” she said over her shoulder.

Raven opened the photos just to prove her wrong. I, the undersigned, hereby acknowledge my availability and intent to work on-set for the following dates. Shit.

*

_Ahahaha I’m going to ruin my roommates senior project_

_Production sound? More like what the hell am I doing??? By the time I’m finished there’ll be a unanimous agreement to turn it into a silent film instead._


	2. Preproduction 1-2

The biggest hurdle for the Snow White Project (aside from an inability to decide on a title) came from an unexpected direction.

“Five minutes?!” Holly said, horrified. “Do you have any idea how hard it was to get it down to ten?!”

“Wait, it gets worse,” Blondie said. “The film, sound, and performing arts departments are working together to cast, crew up, and get equipment—”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Briar said.

“ _But_ ,” Blondie said pointedly, “they can only provide that kind of support for half of the films. So guess what happens to the other half?”

“What’s going on now?” Raven dropped into one of the free armchairs, quietly enjoying the startled jumps she received in response. Apparently their discussion was so engaging that the three women hadn’t heard her come in the door.

“Blondie heard some rumors about new restrictions for senior films,” Holly said, eyes wide. “You mean, ours could get cut?”

“No one’s sure how they’ll choose,” Blondie said.

“Does Apple know?”

Briar made a finger gun at the ceiling. “She knows.”

Now that she was paying attention, Raven could hear a muffled voice and the agitated tapping sound of someone pacing in heels. “Oh boy.”

They sat in tense silence, straining to make out the conversation. Apple’s voice pitched higher and higher, presumably in anger—Raven didn’t have any samples to compare it to. Finally, the tapping receded, and Apple appeared on the staircase with her cell phone clutched in one hand.

“What did Professor Nimble say?” Blondie asked.

“He said he couldn’t officially comment,” Apple fumed, “but he as good as admitted that the policies would be announced next week. Right after we got the permits for filming on the preserve, too! It’s like they drop a new bomb as soon as we’re done cleaning up the old one.”

Raven, whose own circumstances had improved after two classes learning to use a boom pole, felt suddenly guilty.

Holly slumped. “I guess I’ll get to work on the new script.”

“No,” Apple said. “The script is fine as it is.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Briar said, “but isn’t it twice as long as it’s allowed to be?”

“It’s fine,” Apple said, and she wasn’t angry anymore. Raven found her sudden calm to be much more terrifying.

Briar seemed to be of a similar mind. “Hey, Apple,” she said warily.

“Sorry, I don’t have time to discuss it,” Apple said breezily, pulling on a light jacket and taking her purse off its hook. “I have to go set up an appointment with Dean Grimm.”

The door had already clicked shut by the time Raven recovered. “Wait,” she said. “She’s not serious, is she?”

Briar sighed. “Pretty sure she is.”

*

_So it turns out that it is actually possible to make Roommate mad. Long story short, someone higher up than the film department made some arbitrary changes to senior film requirements, and she is pissed. I mean, she’s smiling, but she just walked out to go fight the dean. (Not literally, I hope, but at this point, I wouldn’t put it past her.)_

_The rest of the crew is sort of just waiting to see how the dust settles. I feel kind of bad for them. There’s a chance we won’t get to do the film at all and I think they’ve been working on this at least since the summer._

_Okay. I’ll let you know how it goes, Internet._

*

Raven’s job at the coffee shop was going well. She showed up for her three shifts a week and made drinks. The hiring manager seemed to think Maddie served as sufficient oversight, and Raven wasn’t worried about performance evaluations. Experience had made the back counter of coffee additives far less imposing, and she could mix as fast as Maddie now.

Well, almost as fast. Raven was still half-convinced that her supervisor somehow absorbed caffeine by proximity, and it all went directly into her bloodstream.

“Hey,” Maddie said, “look what time it is!”

The bell over the door jangled and Raven glanced over at the clock—two on the dot. They didn’t really have regulars—there was a twenty-four-hour convenience store nearby where most of the sequential and illustration kids went—except for one. Dexterous Charming usually dropped by once per shift for a medium mocha, hot.

“Hi, Dexter!” Maddie said.

“Hi Maddie,” Dexter said. “R-raven.”

The poor kid was shy. “Hey. Your usual?”

“Yeah,” Dexter said.

Raven made the drink. Dexter took it, warming his hands against the sides. Raven wiped down the counters and the espresso machine. Dexter was still waiting when she turned around. Raven tilted her head at him.

“Is something wrong with the drink?” she asked.

Out of the blue, Dexter blurted out a confused tangle of words that strung together, in some convoluted form, the vague ideas of nighttime, tomorrow, and an old, remastered film playing at the school movie theater.

“Oh, my roommate mentioned that,” Raven said, picking up the only part she recognized and running with it. “She says it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see an amazing cinematic masterpiece in 4K.”

“You’re going?” Dexter asked.

“No,” Raven said, and his face fell. “I’m sure it’s a great film,” she hastened to assure him, “but it’s also like four hours long, isn’t it?”

“Right, of course,” Dexter said, “maybe a different movie, then,” and left with his drink held in both hands.

Raven stared after him, baffled. “Hey, Maddie,” she said, looking around. It was unusual for her supervisor to be so quiet for so long. “Maddie?”

“Yes?” Maddie said _from right next to her_ , giggling when Raven yelped and almost knocked over the stack of cups labeled medium, iced.

“Very funny,” Raven grumbled. “Hey, I have a question. You’ve worked here longer than me; have you ever seen Dexter drink the coffee he buys?”

“Too much caffeine gives Dexter eyestrain,” Maddie said. “He’s very sensitive.”

Sensitive. Go figure.

*

_I am a menace to polite society. One of my professors keeps telling me I have a talented ear but apparently that only applies when I’m wearing headphones. Okay, in my defense, who wants to sit through four hours of a movie that’s more than fifty years old? I’m not a film student._

_I know this doesn’t make sense, Internet. You’ll just have to deal with me being cryptic._

_Oh fine, here’s one of Hype’s jokes to make up for that: Why did the hypochondriac not want to drink his coffee?_

_Because he was already feeling a little sneezy!_

*

Thanks to her mother, Raven’s immune system had been indoctrinated since childhood to require an infusion of homemade chicken soup before properly doing its job. This, in her mind, had been proven quite thoroughly when her three years of dorm living and canned soup had led to more miserable sick days than the rest of her life combined. She had no choice but to take action or face infection, with winter chilling the air and the first sniffles infiltrating her home.

“I didn’t know you could cook,” Apple said. Her nose was slightly red and she was actually eating an orange for once. And, wow, no heels. “I’ve never seen you do it before.”

“I can,” Raven said, lifting the lid of the pot and checking on its simmer. “That doesn’t mean it happens a lot.”

“You should try it more often,” Apple said. “Fresh food is better for you than those instant things you usually eat.”

Raven wanted to say that she actually enjoyed cooking. At least, she’d enjoyed cooking until she had tried making fried rice in the tiny apartment kitchen. (Utilities are covered, a little voice whispered whenever she got too hung up on it.) The incident had ended with her knocking over a can of chili sauce, which vaporized in the pan and set off the smoke alarm; Raven had coughed intermittently for a week before the spice particles fully dislodged from the back of her throat. Now, she only enjoyed cooking when she had room to move her elbows.

“The kitchen is too small.”

“Well, it could be bigger,” Apple said, “but I’ve never had a problem with it.”

Raven pointedly looked her up and down. She said, “You wouldn’t.”

Apple squinted at her. “I have a feeling that you’re making fun of me.”

“Good instincts, Sneezy,” Raven grinned. She stirred the soup and threw in a little more fresh thyme.

“Sneezy?” Apple said indignantly. “I’m not—” She tensed, expression twisting, then carefully relaxed.

“It would have been amazing if you’d actually sneezed right then,” Raven said. “You know, I wasn’t even sure you could get sick.”

“Well, I’m not perfect,” Apple said, picking sulkily at her orange.

“Fooled me for three weeks,” Raven said. “When’s your meeting with Dean Grimm?”

“Two hours.” Apple looked marginally more cheerful. Raven wasn’t sure if it was because of the compliment or the idea of browbeating the dean.

“Have some soup,” Raven said. “And let me know how it goes.”

*

_You’ll never believe this, Internet. You know how I told you Roommate got in a fight with the school over her senior film? Turns out she actually won?? I’m not clear on the details, but the gist of it is, there was an emergency equipment shortage so the school had to cut down on filming time, which screwed anyone with a script longer than five minutes. Roommate basically said that if they let her do her own thing, she’d take care of her own equipment, crew, and actors, and they can grade her on the same standard as the officially sanctioned films._

_I mean, the school has Hollywood-tier cameras, but I guess that doesn’t matter. +1 to bullheadedness, full steam ahead._

_Also, just as noteworthy is that today was the first time I’ve ever seen Roommate not wearing heels._

*

Apple asked, “What are you doing two Saturdays before finals?”

“Probably procrastinating on finals.” Raven thought about it. “I have work.”

“I want to throw a party, maybe around six,” Apple said, “so the cast and crew can all meet each other. And to celebrate the end of the quarter, before anyone gets too busy.”

Raven opened her mouth to ask how that was different from any other day of the week. It was becoming commonplace to find parts of Apple’s crew wandering the lower floors of the apartment at all hours. Raven had seen Blondie in a sleep mask, staying over after a budget meeting ran late. She’d seen Ashlynn come in at midnight to pick up a jacket or pair of shoes from the day before. She’d seen Briar helping herself to the contents of the fridge at two in the morning, as well as passed out on the couch the next afternoon, a freshly finished essay on her laptop.

Needless to say, getting caught unawares in pajamas was no longer an issue.

And then it occurred to Raven that outside the inner circle of preproduction was an entirely unfamiliar cast and crew.

“How many people are going to be there?” she asked.

“Oh, twenty-five, more or less,” Apple said.

Twenty-five. Her illusion of worldliness was neatly and thoroughly shattered.

One of the studios in the film building was reserved, and a variety of finger foods procured by the Inner Circle. Raven drove over after work to help set up. She was directed outside to Hunter the furniture mover (seriously, who was this guy?) and the two remaining folding tables in his pickup truck.

“Do you need help with that?” she asked as he reached for one of the tables. His utter lack of effort in lifting it made it clear that he did not need help at all.

He looked her up and down, and hesitated. “Nah, I can come back out and grab the other one in a minute.”

Raven watched him head back into the building and pursed her lips. Maybe she didn’t exactly have muscles like a Greek bronze, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t lift a measly little folding table. Grab the edge, heave six inches up—and, okay, there was no way she would be able to carry this thing by herself.

“Here, let me,” a soft voice said, and the load shifted until the weight was manageable. The woman on the other end of the table was tall, with blue eyes and pale hair tied up in a casual knot. “Where are we going?”

“Studio B,” Raven said. “Thanks.”

“Oh, are you with Apple White’s film?”

“Yeah, I’m Raven.” Raven looked again. “And you’re Darling Charming.”

“Nice to meet you,” Darling said. “Well—I didn’t see you at auditions, did I?”

“No, I’m production sound,” Raven said. “But Apple holds most of her meetings at our apartment so I overhear things occasionally.”

They bumped up a set of steps, and with the path clear, Raven turned around to get a better grip. Darling’s eyes flicked down to the coffee shop logo on her work shirt.

“You two are…”

“Roommates,” Raven said. “By the way, you don’t happen to know a guy called Dexter?”

Darling said, “He’s my brother, actually.”

“Oh,” Raven said. She glanced over her shoulder, backing into the studio door until it opened far enough for them to get inside. “Small world.”

Hunter and Ashlynn took over to unfold the table and fill it with food. By then most of the other cast and crew were drifting in the doors, calling out to the people they recognized and mingling around the refreshments. Darling slid effortlessly into the fray, making small talk like she had been trained from birth.

Raven had been counting on Apple to help with introductions, but her roommate was already surrounded by a loud and chattering crowd. A skinny, freckled man competed with a prickly gray-eyed woman for Briar’s attention. Blondie was filming behind-the-scenes footages from the edges of the crowd, Ashlynn was with Hunter, and Holly was talking to…another Holly with a purple undercut. Okay then.

The doors swung open and admitted two late arrivals.

Sparrow Hood and Duchess Swan.

Oh no.

*

_The cast of Roommate’s film contains a guy I can’t stand, a girl who can’t stand me, and a fourth-year performing arts major who stutters whenever he sees the DP. In case you didn’t know, Internet, the DP aka director of photography is the one who holds the camera._

_Trust the director’s vision, they say. Okay, Roomie._

_On the bright side, there’s the lead. I just met her tonight, but she is perfectly charming as far as I can tell._

_P.S. The runner-up lead, Roommate’s friend, is now our animal wrangler._

_P.P.S. I’ve discovered that the Pickup Truck Furniture Mover is actually our animal wrangler’s boyfriend._

_P.P.P.S. “Animal wrangler” is an unofficial title because the school doesn’t allow animals on set. We’re filming on a wildlife preserve, so I think Roommate is counting on Runner-Up to just kind of lure nature into behaving in front of the camera? I wouldn’t put it past her. I also wouldn’t be surprised if it worked._

*

The door clicked shut and Raven was alone for the next six weeks.

Winter break was ridiculous and long, and Raven had appreciated that when the dorms had closed and her plane ticket back to San Francisco had been prepaid. This year, there was a paying job, a nine-month lease, and the understanding that she would handle her own expenses. With one or another by itself, she might have flown back anyway. With all three combined, she was stuck.

Apple was going home to her family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, then visiting her boyfriend for New Year’s. Raven had custody of the apartment now. Everyone else was gone too; Blondie at an internship, Briar to Hawaii, Ashlynn and Holly back to their homes. The place was weirdly quiet.

She started up some music on her laptop, skipped to the next song, then the next. None of her other playlists caught her attention. She hit pause and flopped back on her bed. A bird chirped, and she reflexively glared at the smoke detector.

Six more weeks of this.

While the laptop was handy, she checked her notifications. Briar had two dozen new Instagram photos, breathtaking volcanic landscapes befitting a photo major mixed in with badly lit cameraphone selfies. Ashlynn had Tweeted about vegan turkey options and tagged Hunter in it. Blondie had updated her LinkedIn, but Raven wasn’t quite that desperate.

How was there actually nothing to do? She lived downtown and the city was practically flooded with tourists every spring and summer. Raven thought about going to check out the bars or something. Go tour a graveyard. That sounded like so much fun.

Her email alert pinged, and it was embarrassing how eagerly she jumped to open it.

_If you’re hungry and alone, come by the museum courtyard at 6PM on Black Friday to eat my Thanksgiving leftovers. THIS IS NOT A POTLUCK, DO NOT BRING ANYTHING (except empty Tupperware)._

It was from Professor Badwolf, and addressed to his architecture students. Raven wrote a reply. _Thanks for the invite, but you should probably take me off that mailing list._

Apple sent out a Snap from the airport, waiting to board. It was covered in excited sticker emojis. Raven sighed. She thought about taking a nap and lay down on the bed, but it was only two in the afternoon so she didn’t actually sleep.

A new email alert appeared, and she rolled over to check it. Badwolf again. _Come anyway, help me get rid of this food._

Well, why not. She didn’t have anything better to do this Thanksgiving.

*

_So, backstory: one of my old architecture professors does an annual thing he calls Black Hole Friday where he invites his students to come and eat all of his leftovers from Thanksgiving. It’s almost like some kind of legendary challenge now, because he somehow never runs out, even though he’s giving free food to college kids. Apparently his wife always overcooks because his extended family is full of assholes who don’t bother to RSVP and it’s better to be safe or whatever._

_Anyway, I go to this party, and the first thing I see is thirty or forty angry architecture majors holding empty plates. The second thing is a scrawny little sophomore, who is covered in bacon mashed potatoes after knocking over the entire food table. There’s turkey everywhere. Violence seems imminent. RIP, Black Hole Friday._

_And then Professor Black Hole himself comes over from the parking lot and just stares at the mess for a bit. And then he says, “Okay, someone grab those tables. We’ll set up the rest of it over here.”_

_Turns out, all of that food on the ground is only about half of what he brought. It’s a holiday miracle. Mrs. Black Hole saved a life today._

_Honestly, the real miracle is how good everything tastes even when it’s reheated. You’d think that cooking in bulk would make the result average at best but you would be so wrong. I can’t believe I missed out on this for three years._

*

Raven went to work. Maddie was gone, so she was handling the shop alone. A few people wandered in to get away from the chill, but they never stayed long. Dexter did not come by for his usual mocha.

*

_Update: I’m on break and nothing’s happening. Was my life always this boring?_

*

On Monday, Raven woke up to approximately sixteen emails trying to tempt her into spending her hard-earned wages. She deleted them all and went to go make breakfast.

Breakfast was uneventful. Everything was uneventful these days. Raven went back to her laptop and looked at her notifications. No new posts since last night.

Maybe she would ask about picking up some extra shifts at the coffee shop, since she had weekdays free now. It was weird not having homework to do. Raven checked her next quarter’s classes and found that one already had a syllabus posted online. There was a pre-quarter reading assignment that she finished in half an hour.

Her email dinged. It was another Cyber Monday promotion.

The synth keyboard arrived four days later. She shouldn’t have bought it, but there it was, and she was terrible at playing it. Four years of piano lessons didn’t account for the stiffness of her fingers or the unfamiliar plastic keys.

Raven messed around with the synthesizer settings instead, throwing a dubstep beat underneath a simple melody played with a soprano choir. It sounded a little rough, but she already had new ideas to try.

And hey, at least she had a hobby now.

*

_Pro tip: Don’t make impulse buys on Cyber Monday when you have rent to pay._

_In related news, I don’t have to buy groceries for two weeks because of Black Hole Friday, so I have a new synth now! Merry early Christmas to me._

*

Raven dialed and held the phone to her ear. It rang twice and was answered by a crisp, businesslike voice.

“Queen.”

“Hi, Mom,” Raven said. “Merry Christmas.”

“Oh! Raven, honey.” There were some shuffling sounds on the other end of the line, before her mother’s voice returned. “I haven’t heard from you in such a long time. Why aren’t you home for break?”

Wow. She was going straight for the kill shot. “I’m trying to save money right now.”

“Well, family should be together for the holidays, dear. I could have covered it if you’d asked.”

And if Raven had asked, it would have been a completely different story. Oh, sweetheart, you wouldn’t have this problem if hadn’t switched majors at the last minute. Architecture is so much more marketable than sound design. Art must be zero percent instinct and at least fifty percent math or you will starve and die.

Or something like that, anyway.

“Raven?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Sorry, I guess it didn’t occur to me.”

“Well, was there a particular reason you called? Did you get your Christmas present?”

The tailored pantsuit had arrived two days ago. The card had said it was for job interviews and business meetings. Raven didn’t bother telling her mother that she would need another couple years to finish her degree before starting her job search. “I got it. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, dear. So, how are you doing in your classes?”

It went downhill from there.

*

_Can I go back to school yet?_


	3. Production 2-1

The shooting schedule called for six days spread over the last two weekends in February. Raven submitted her shift change paperwork by the first Friday of January, and it was approved the week after. Apple was taking care of all the sound equipment, so all Raven needed to do was show up, buy several spare batteries of various types, and provide her own headphones.

Being ready to go a month and a half early was a novel concept for her. Then again, Raven couldn’t take all the credit, since the preproduction crew was doing most of the heavy lifting. Apple was definitely a planner, and she was working with Blondie, whose legendary attention to detail was practically a neurosis.

So she settled back, focused on her classes, and waited.

*

_Ugh I’m so tired the coffee shop was packed today because it was closer than the cheap place everyone usually goes to. Ugh ugh ugh there’s ice on the ground and we have to pretend our faucets are leaky or else the pipes will explode. I thought this was supposed to be the Deep South WHY IS IT FREEZING?_

_I told Hype I walked to work and she said I should go by icicle instead. I don’t own a bike, but I’m surprised I’m not an icicle already._

*

_Well, it finally happened. A street sweeper caught me in the right place at the wrong time and now I have a parking ticket. First rule of survival when parking in the city: it’s not luck if everyone else is avoiding it, you’re just not paying attention._

_I’m actually a little surprised I didn’t get one sooner. And also that it’s only like twelve bucks. They don’t let you off that easy in San Francisco._

*

_My mom sent me money for the first time since I switched majors. She may not believe in sound design but thank god she still believes in Chinese New Year._

*

One week before the first day of shooting, Apple stalked into the apartment with a look on her face that could melt steel. She yanked out the binder filled with preproduction paperwork and slammed it down onto the coffee table.

Raven leaned cautiously out of the kitchen. “What’s wrong?”

“Sparrow Hood,” Apple spat in a familiar tone of voice. Raven herself had often used it on those very same words. “Has dropped out. To join a band. In New Jersey.”

Raven couldn’t say she was surprised. “What are you going to do?”

Apple grimaced. “I’ve put out some notices, but we’re not going to have much time for proper auditions, so we might need to reschedule his shots. And of course he wouldn’t tell me until the last minute, because that would be far too considerate.” She shook her head.

“You knew Sparrow before you cast him though, didn’t you?” Raven asked.

“Tangentially,” Apple said. “Holly met him in poetry class.”

Poetry—? Moving on. “Then you must have guessed he wasn’t reliable,” Raven began.

“So why did I risk it?” Apple sighed. “The chemistry tests.”

“Huh?”

“It’s important to me that the queen isn’t a flat antagonist,” Apple explained. “Sparrow and Duchess came in together, so we had them do some chemistry tests. He wasn’t quite the stoic huntsman I imagined, but Sparrow played the character as someone who had the queen’s best interests at heart, even when he was lying to her. But why does he care about her? What kind of redeeming traits does she have? I thought it would be interesting to explore.”

Raven couldn’t imagine it. Sparrow, looking out for anyone’s interests other than his own? She was biased, but surely he hadn’t changed that much since freshman year.

Apple snapped the binder open, removed several sheets of paper, and closed it again. “Anyway,” she said, “it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m sure we’ll be able to find a new actor in no time at all.”

*

_Good news, Internet, the guy I can’t stand is off the film. He quit to join a band. Bad news, we are now short one cast member. Roommate has been looking all week and she’s still not happy with her options. At what point do you have to settle for second best just to get the job done? Being a director is hard work._

*

On the first day of filming, Apple woke Raven up at five in the morning. Raven groggily went to the bathroom, swallowed some breakfast, and loaded up the sound equipment. Apple checked Raven’s cargo twice, then they drove off to the day’s location.

They were the first to arrive, which was perfectly according to plan. Raven set her phone to silent and waited in the warm car while Apple went to get the keys.

_-Liveblogging the first day of shooting. It’s so early but we’re at a cool mansion this weekend._

Hunter was the next to arrive, with a cargo trailer hitched to the back of his truck, which he began unloading. Briar, Ashlynn, and Blondie came next and jumped in right away to help. They were starting in a back ballroom, which Hunter and Ashlynn redecorated into a throne room for the queen. Briar set up lights and mounted the large, blocky camera on a tripod.

Duchess appeared and was immediately swept off to hair, makeup, and costume by Poppy and Lizzie. These two were mainly responsible for designing the look of the film, which was inspired by period fashion and décor, but unmistakably modern in execution. Raven could still remember Apple’s screech of delight when she saw the sketches for the first time.

_-The schedule is front-loading the girl who hates me but bright side the worst will be over soon._

_-And later today we’ll learn how Roommate plans to handle Stutter around the DP._

When everyone looked camera-ready, they began arranging the first shot. Raven put on her headphones, eased in with the boom to Briar’s signal, and backed away until the microphone was just out of frame. She would be working independently, juggling the mixer on her right hip, the recorder on her left, and the boom in whichever hand wasn’t pushing buttons or turning dials. It wasn’t the easiest setup, but it was portable.

“Camera?” Apple asked.

“Rolling,” Briar said.

“Sound?”

Raven’s turn. “Speeding.”

Finally, Blondie held the slate in front of the camera.

“Snowfall, shot thirteen, take one.”

SNAP.

Apple leaned forward. “Action.”

_-Just finished the first take!! :O_

Duchess was the embodiment of the diva stereotype, but Raven was forced to admit that she was not a bad actor. There was a bit of haughtiness at the suggestion of a second take, but Apple managed to cajole her into it.

“Your performance was great,” she said. “That’s definitely not in question. I just want a few different choices to work with.”

Different, not better. With that bit of semantics, Apple got six takes before she called it and they moved on to the next shot.

_-Longest part is lighting each shot. Lots of hurry up and wait for everyone except Roommate and DP they just have hurry up._

They finished all of the queen’s individual throne room shots, and prepared the magic mirror. There was an empty frame mounted on the Hunter-made false wall that could hold surfaces of various reflectivity. Hopper (currently having his makeup done) was going to act from a black booth on the other side of the wall. Various lighting and smoke effects would help sell the magical illusion, and the rest could be handled in post.

Briar had Kitty stand in for the lighting test and it looked damn cool on camera. Then, they dropped in the mirrored glass for Duchess’s first lines and rearranged the crew and equipment to stay out of view.

_-Lol Roommate is taking over as camera op for Stutter’s scenes._

- _Supposedly because she knows mirror shots and everything needs be perfect, but we all know the truth here._

_-Stutter is pretty good when he’s not stuttering though._

“Alright,” Apple said, just before noon. “We’re done with the throne room for today, so let’s break for lunch. Hopper, we finished all your scenes, but I’ll let you know if you need to come back for pickups.”

A loud chime rang through the house. Most of the crew jumped.

“That’s the pizza,” Blondie said. “Perfect timing!”

Raven was inclined to disagree, since she’d just taken off her sound-dampening headphones.

The menu today included nine large pizzas, two orders each of breadsticks, wings, and cinnamon bites, and four two-liter bottles of soda. The delivery girl was carrying all of it at once.

“Hi,” she said. “Red Hot Pizza.”

Blondie sent Bunny and Alistair for the folding tables, and the delivery girl stood patiently as the other gofers started to unload the food. Raven was about to go help when she saw Apple standing dumbly next to the door.

“Hey,” she said, “what’s up with you?”

“I think…” Apple began.

Hunter took half of the pizzas, and three of them slid out of alignment when Hopper bumped him with the sodas. Without missing a beat, the delivery girl shifted the remaining five pizzas to one hand and caught the teetering stack in the other.

“She’s the one,” Apple said.

“Huh?” said Raven.

Apple marched across the room before Raven could stop her and said, “Would you like to be in my film?”

The delivery girl blinked. “What.”

_-Roommate just grabbed the pizza girl and cast her in the film. We’re starting at 3 on Sunday to accommodate her work schedule._

_-Yes, that’s 3 in the morning. Roommate wants her that bad._

_-In her defense, Pizza Girl is pretty ripped._

Cerise the pizza girl left to finish her deliveries with a bemused look on her face, but not before signing the paperwork and letting Lizzie take some measurements for the costume. Apple wouldn’t stop bouncing on her toes, giddy from adrenaline and relief.

Raven savored every bite of the Red Hot pizza.

Half an hour later, Blondie pointed the production design team upstairs to start on their next set. They spent the rest of the day finishing all the scenes in the makeshift castle that had Duchess as the only actor.

- _Last shot of the day! Looks like the film is off to a good start. We’ll be back and I’ll be blogging tomorrow at 6AM._

All the sets were left as is so they could be used again later, and most of the equipment would be fine overnight in a locked house. The only exception was the camera, which went home with Apple.

“So, how glad are you to be done with your first day of filming?” Raven asked as she unlocked the door. She kicked off her shoes and went straight for the couch to flop down with a sigh.

“Oh, I’m not done yet,” Apple said. “I still have to copy and back up all the footage, and watch the dailies.”

Raven’s eyebrows went up. “My condolences,” she said.

“I don’t mind,” Apple said. “It saves time in the long run if we address any issues as soon as possible.”

The furniture was too comfortable for Raven to be concerned with the long run, especially when she knew there had to be hours of footage to go through.

“Make sure to get plenty of sleep tonight,” Apple added. “You look tired, and we need everyone to be at their best tomorrow.”

Yes. Tomorrow. Raven sank deeper into the cushions, but there wasn’t much they could do to protect her from harsh reality.

Tomorrow was going to _suck_.

*

_The first day of shooting went well. You can see the liveblog here, and I’m going to update that for the rest of the shoot, if you want to keep up. The highlight of the day is that Roommate finally found the perfect actor she was looking for. Pizza Girl works this weekend but she’s game to come in early so we don’t have to postpone the scenes and mess with location permits too much. She seems pretty cool. I haven’t really met her or talked to her or anything but she’s already a definite step up from that other guy._

_It’s amazing how tiring it is to just stand there and hold a stick. I literally got spaghetti sauce on my face because I was falling asleep at dinner, six hours before I usually go to bed. Roommate is a morning person, but she’s staying up to look at the footage and make sure we didn’t make any massive mistakes this early on. That’s dedication, but I guess I should stop being surprised._

*

Saturday was this week’s marathon day. On the schedule was every scene with Darling at the castle, which had originally been split into two days but had to be stuffed into one because of the last-minute huntsman—now huntress—casting.

_-Long day ahead and the schedule’s tight. All the scenes today feature our lead, Perfectly Charming._

_-PC doesn’t have training as far as I know but Roommate doesn’t seem nervous at all. Good for her._

_-My feet are still sore from yesterday._

Set-up began at six. Darling emerged from the changing room forty-five minutes later, and Raven was disproportionately surprised to see that she was wearing a black wig. It looked jarring, but it made sense. They were adapting Snow White, and the original story was very specific.

Apple studied it for a moment. “We don’t need the wig,” she said at last.

“Are you sure?” Poppy asked. “Hair as black as ebony is pretty iconic.”

“It’s just not the right look,” Apple said. “It should be more…” She frowned. “Triumphant.”

“Gotcha,” Poppy said.

Darling went back in, and returned shortly with her blonde hair pinned and coiled into a braided crown. Poppy had added clips with small, glittering gems dangling from them, and some sheer netting that was studded with sparkles. She’d also adjusted some of the makeup, softening the eye shadow and replacing the red lipstick with a paler shade. Combined with the long blue and white gown, she looked far more ethereal than before.

Apple’s eyes went wide. “It’s perfect.”

Poppy pumped her fist and gave Lizzie a high-five. Raven didn’t know which was more impressive, the look, or the fact that Poppy had come up with the look after hearing such a vague direction as “triumphant.”

_-Shout out to costumes and hair and makeup. Who knew PC could look better than gorgeous? I wish you all could see Roommate’s face._

If Raven hadn’t seen it herself, she would never have known that Apple had initially been hesitant about casting Darling. The director was all smiles and no adjustments; they wrapped one shot in a record three takes. The efficiency didn’t put them that far ahead of schedule, but it was enough to make them wait for Duchess to finish getting camera-ready.

Raven sat in one of the fancy plush chairs, making sure not to hit any buttons on the mixer or recorder. Her shoulders were stiff, and she did her best to stretch them out without dropping the microphone.

Apple briskly crossed the room, splitting her attention between her phone, her tablet, two different clipboards, and a cup of coffee. It was a display of multitasking and coordination that outstripped any reasonable expectations. “Raven, how are the batteries?” she asked.

“Just changed them,” Raven said, and Apple gave her a grateful nod before hurrying off to the next thing she needed to take care of.

Darling wandered over next to Raven’s chair. “Does she even sleep?” she asked with a hint of admiration.

“Apple isn’t bound by the same rules as the rest of us mere mortals,” Raven said. She looked down at Darling’s strappy heels and winced. “Although I’m sure you know all about that.”

Darling gave her a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Raven said, “how have those shoes not killed you yet?”

Darling followed her gaze, and smiled. “Superior design and craftsmanship,” she said.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” said Ashlynn, coming out of nowhere, and Raven almost smacked her with a startled jerk of the boom pole. “Who’s the designer? They’re almost exactly what Lizzie wanted but I never saw anything like it when I was shopping earlier.”

“Oh. They’re custom.” Darling turned slightly pink. Raven wanted to tell her that there was no reason to feel self-conscious with Apple “this camera only rents for a thousand dollars a day that’s much better than I expected” White in the next room. “Lizzie showed me the sketches and I actually made them myself.”

That’s right, she was an accessory design senior. It was impressive, but Raven couldn’t help smirking. “Superior design and craftsmanship, huh? Sounds like someone has a high opinion of herself.”

“Well,” Darling said, bravado returning, “I’m not the one sitting down right now.”

She had a point. Before Raven was forced to admit it, Duchess swept out of the changing room in a flurry of long skirts and winged eyeliner, and Apple announced the end of their little breather.

_-Just finished filming a big dramatic conflict. Roommate was picky and averaged 28 takes per shot. I think I need a smoke break._

_-I don’t smoke_

The final confrontation between Snow and her stepmother may have been integral to the resolution of the film, but capturing it perfectly had put them behind schedule. Lunch was late and quick (and far less eventful than yesterday’s), and then it was right back to work.

The actors went to change into their outfits from before the attempted murder, a simpler frock for Darling and another elaborate purple dress for Duchess. The crew went to set up in the garden, and as soon as Raven stepped outside, she knew that this was going to be another painful scene to shoot.

“What are the chances you’re planning on just dubbing this over later?” she asked Apple.

“Low,” Apple said. She looked from Raven to the microphone. “How much background noise are you hearing? Do you think you can get clean dialogue?”

“I’m going to need to be pretty close,” Raven said.

Which was how she found herself practically glued to the camera, which was also attached to Briar, and they were all parked right over Darling’s shoulder for a close shot. Raven felt like she was operating the audio equivalent of a periscope on a submarine, working in cramped conditions and under high pressure.

“Duchess, for the next take,” Apple began, and everyone mourned. They’d just finished take twelve. The dialogue on that one had been perfect, too. Raven grimaced, shifting from foot to foot.

“Exactly like that!” Apple said suddenly. “Camera! Sound!”

“Rolling!”

Raven scrambled to hit the record button. “Speeding!”

That was the take. Apple told them to move on to the next shot but Duchess still didn’t drop her murderglare. Raven decided to stay out of her way for the time being. The next shot was a wide one anyway.

_-More BTS facts: it’s impossible to get good dialogue in wide shots without lavaliers or shenanigans. A lot of them are dubbed in post._

_-That’s why I can keep up with the blogging, by the way. Like I said, hurry up and wait._

Duchess was allowed to leave once they had finished every scene with her and Darling. In exchange for not being called on Sunday, Darling stayed to finish off her early costume castle scenes. The pace picked up dramatically with a series of quick shots that didn’t require the same layers of subtext, but stamina was flagging. That meant slip-ups and oversights, which led to more takes.

_-For the love of god let this be the toughest day of shooting I am dead on my feet._

They managed to wrestle through and end the day on schedule, but that silk-smooth efficiency from the first shots of the day couldn’t be recaptured.

*

_Today’s shoot was the first day with our lead, Perfectly Charming. She doesn’t do the diva thing, which is nice, and Roommate seemed pretty happy with her acting choices. Not too bad for a newbie, right? And then we shot two killer scenes back to back which basically destroyed my will to live._

_Liveblog is available here. Our Sunday shoot is at 3 in the morning so I’m going to pass out for a bit._

*

Raven woke up just past one and noticed the lights on Apple’s floor were still turned on.

“Hey,” she said, knocking at the doorframe. “You’re still watching dailies?”

Apple nudged aside one cup of the headphones she wore. “Just starting the rough cut.”

“Already?”

“It makes it easier to see if I’m missing something,” Apple explained.

“You’ve been awake for like twenty-four hours,” Raven said.

“Twenty,” Apple corrected.

“And you still have today’s shoot to get through.”

“It’s sweet that you’re worried,” Apple said, and Raven rolled her eyes. “But I’ll be fine. What is it they say? Sleep Comes After Death?”

Maybe Darling had been on to something. Had Raven ever _seen_ Apple sleeping? “Okay, whatever,” she said. “Come down in half an hour for omelets.”

_-Day 3 begins. Or day 2.5 or whatever. Also, mansions that look cool in the daylight are really creepy in the dark._

The two scenes they were shooting involved the queen and the huntsman in the throne room. Cerise wore distressed brown leather over a forest green tunic and paced around the set while testing her costume’s fit and movement. Duchess lounged in her throne, looking irritated. That was probably okay; it fit her character at least.

The hall seemed quite a bit bigger than before. Crew attendance wasn’t at the level of the last two days, but the gofers were working on a volunteer basis and not obligated to show up. Amazingly enough, setup didn’t take any longer than usual because Briar more than made up for it with her own manic energy.

“Everything’s ready on my end,” she said with a grin. “Come on, guys, let’s get started!” She ignored the incredulous stares aimed in her direction and waved for Duchess and Cerise to get into position.

_-Our DP is a monster. After the last two days, I refuse to believe any human being could be this chipper._

“We’ll open with a stationary shot from the doors,” Apple said. “Cerise, your back is to the camera but I want to see confidence and poise in every step.”

_-Roommate is also being unfairly coherent for someone who hasn’t slept since five yesterday morning._

Cerise didn’t have very many lines, so Apple and Briar focused more on her movements. The scrutiny didn’t do her any favors, turning her walk into something stiff and self-conscious. But despite the crew’s worries—no one wanted a repeat of yesterday’s 28-take ordeal—apparently all it took was a few minutes in front of the camera for Cerise to warm up and regain her quiet assurance.

Duchess also needed a few tries to hit on the character choices that Apple wanted to see, but was far less argumentative about it. Between the two of them, the timing worked out surprisingly well and they ended up with a good first shot seven takes in.

_-Pizza Girl is a little rough but shaping up well. This might go by quicker than I thought._

“We’re done with the first scene,” Apple announced, “but I want to tell you right now that the second one won’t be as simple. Everyone needs to pay attention, because any carelessness could make things…messy.”

This meant that the huntress would be presenting the queen with fresh and bloody proof of Snow’s death, and Lizzie would not be happy if the costumes got stained.

Kitty Cheshire provided the heart. No one asked where she got it from, not after seeing her smirk at Ashlynn’s horrified “That’s not _real_ , is it?” Hunter was squeamish and had to step outside.

To her credit, Duchess reached right into the leaky burlap bag and, with a sickly sounding squelch, picked up the unnaturally realistic organ in her bare hand. She held it up, examined it from various angles, even smelled it—and all with an unfaltering look of deep satisfaction.

“That’s not in the script,” Raven heard Holly whisper in respect. The microphone heard it as well, but she could fix it in post. This was too good to be ruined by a blip in the meter.

“Cut,” Apple said. “Duchess, that was great.”

Duchess returned the heart to the bag with a smug grin on her face. Her hand was red from the wrist down and streams of fake blood had started to drip down her arm.

Apple continued, “Briar, let’s move in for a close up. Can somebody get Duchess a towel? We can’t have her doing that again if she’s already covered in blood.”

The smugness disappeared in favor of a disgusted grimace. “You’re making me do that _again_?”

“I don’t need the shot,” Apple said. “But it was a great choice and I want to use it if I can.”

Duchess sighed and took the towel Poppy handed her. “That’s the last time I improvise on a script,” she muttered.

“Well,” Holly said, “look on the bright side. At least you didn’t decide to _eat_ it.”

*

_My faith in filmmaking has been restored. Saturday must have been a glitch, because today’s shoot moved way faster, even with the weird hours. Live updates stopped because the second scene got really busy, but I guess I’d rather be working on a hectic set than standing around making text posts. Long story short, the girl who hates me is kind of a badass and I’m not afraid to admit that even though she’s always glaring at me between takes._

_Pizza Girl is good too. It’s kind of weird that more than half the cast doesn’t have any training and they’re still doing just fine. I guess Roommate just has an eye for talent._

_Anyway, we’re done for the week and the sets have been torn down. The rest of the shoot is going to be outdoors, which, let me tell you, is going to be one hell of an exercise in noise reduction._

_Liveblog (to a point) is available here, as always. We’ll be starting again on Friday morning, exact time TBA._

*

**_Anonymous asked: As a director myself, I’m not surprised at the success you’ve seen in your amateurs. I’ve always found that using real people instead of actors results in a more truthful performance._ **

_I_

_…_

_I guess what you’re saying is that actors are fake people??_

_I’m going to be honest, though, Roommate’s film is just one of those things. Like winning the lottery. It’s not impossible, but it’s never going to happen to you. I can pretty much guarantee that every other senior film is using trained actors or the directors are tearing their hair out._

*

Monday found Raven frantically trying to catch up on some of the things that had dropped in priority over the weekend: her shifts at the coffee shop, homework, and sleep. Unfortunately, she could only manage two of the three, and sleep was sacrificed once again. She spent most of Tuesday in a dreamy haze and only leveled out on Wednesday.

“Are you finally finished with your zombie impression?” Apple asked when Raven came home after class.

“Was I that bad?” Raven went into the kitchen and examined the fruit bowl.

“You were trying to make toast in the rice cooker,” Apple said.

Raven paused. “I mean, that’s theoretically possible.” She selected a banana and ate it, but it didn’t help much with her hunger.

“Are you honestly trying to defend your actions?” Apple asked, amused. “I think they speak for themselves.”

“Oh, do you?” Raven plugged in the rice cooker and pulled two slices of bread from the bag. “Challenge accepted.”

She didn’t just make toast, she made grilled cheese. Apple was duly impressed.

“So how’s your rough cut going?” Raven asked. She poured a can of tomato soup into the emptied rice cooker.

“Very well,” Apple said. “I’ve put together most of the beginning and end, but I’m using this week to try a few different versions to see if I find anything that works better.”

“Well, you do have like thirty takes for each shot in the back half,” Raven said wryly. “That’s a lot of options.”

“Actually, it’s less than you think,” Apple said. “I’ve finally narrowed it down to the performances I want so I’m really only working with different distances and angles now.”

“Does it really take that long?” The lid of the rice cooker started to steam over. Raven tore the crusts off her sandwich. “I mean, it seems like you already know what you want on set.”

“Normally, I do,” Apple said. “But Duchess always comes up with a lot of great choices and I don’t want to rule any of them out just because I had a preconceived idea.”

Huh. So maybe “different” wasn’t an overly tactful code word after all. “But aren’t you putting a little too much emphasis on the queen’s side of things?” Raven asked. “Snow’s your protagonist.”

“And that means the audience gets to spend more time with her, so I can take my time with her story. The queen has to pack everything into a few scenes. Plus,” Apple added, “the audience is predisposed to disliking the antagonist, so I have a bit of an uphill battle.”

“Yeah, I get it now.” The rice cooker dinged. Raven used a potholder to lift out the metal bowl and arranged her dinner on a plate. “And may I present: a full meal that is not rice, made entirely in a rice cooker.”

“Well, you could stand to add some leafy greens to your diet,” Apple said, exasperated. “But you’ve made your point about the rice cooker. Honestly, I don’t know why we even have a stove.”

“Well, it does come in handy for holding hot baking sheets,” Raven said. “We don’t have any wire racks.” She took her plate to go upstairs.

“Oh, before I forget,” Apple said. “Here are your keys back.”

Raven balanced the plate in one hand and took the keys with the other. “When did you borrow my car?”

“Last night,” Apple said. “I noticed you were parked in the street sweeping zone—”

“Oh no,” said Raven.

“And you were in no shape to drive, so you said I could move it for you,” Apple finished.

“Oh thank god,” said Raven. “A parking ticket is the last thing I need to deal with right now.”

“You know the city lets you get away with one parking ticket a year,” Apple said.

Raven blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”

*

_Why did no one tell me that the city excuses parking tickets? I’m out twelve bucks and I was perfectly happy when I thought it could have been 70 but now I find out that it could have been zero???_


	4. Production 2-2

For the remaining three days of filming, the cast and crew would be driving out of town to a nearby wildlife preserve.

_-Week 2, day 1. We’re out in the backwoods to shoot PC communing with nature._

First up on the schedule was the scene between Snow and the huntress. Cerise got a new prop, a large bow and a quiver of arrows.

“Do I actually have to shoot something with this?” she asked dubiously.

“Well, you won’t have to hit anything,” Apple assured her. “We’ll take care of that in editing. The arrowheads are made of foam, anyway.”

“Lighting’s done, we’re ready when you are,” Briar called.

Cerise experimentally drew back the string.

“Lower your right hand so it doesn’t cover your face,” Apple said. “How long can you hold it?”

“A while,” Cerise said, lowering the bow. “It’s not too heavy.”

“Okay, start with the arrow on the string, but draw it after five seconds.” Apple stepped back. “Camera.”

“Rolling.”

“Sound.”

“Speeding,” Raven said.

“And…”

“Hey! What are you kids doing?!”

_-Roommate just spent the last 10 minutes arguing with a ranger guy over filming permits and hunting season._

_-Things I learned today: archery bows are classified as sporting equipment, not weapons._

Raven leaned against a tree, occasionally angling the boom to check up on the conversation. Apple was being her usual polite self, but Raven could tell she was feeling impatient from the higher pitch of her voice.

Darling approached, holding a half-finished flower crown. “Raven,” she said.

“Hey,” Raven said. “What’s up?”

“I was wondering…” Darling paused. “There’s a spider on your shoulder.”

“Where?” Raven looked. “Oh. Sorry about this, bud.” She took two steps away from the tree and flicked it away with a fingertip. “Thanks, Darling.”

Darling stared at her.

“What?” Raven asked. “Um, are you one of those people that doesn’t kill bugs?”

“The opposite, actually,” Darling said. “I’m the spider-killer in the family. I’ve never apologized to them before, though.”

“I lived in an apartment that didn’t allow dogs,” Raven said, “so my mom got me a tarantula instead.”

“Wow,” said Darling.

“Yeah,” Raven said. “It was around the same time she realized that she had to teach me manners before I went to school and accidentally insulted someone. I practiced on Tarantino.”

“Your mom got you a tarantula when you were five?” Darling asked.

“More like four, I think,” Raven said.

“And you named it Tarantino?”

Raven shrugged. “My dad was a fan. So what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Oh,” Darling said, “well, it’s about Sunday’s shoot.”

“I’m not sure how much I can help you on that, unless you only need call times,” Raven said. “Maybe Blondie would be better to ask.”

“I already tried that,” Darling said. “How long have you known Apple?”

“Since fall quarter,” Raven said, and blinked, puzzled by both the question and the answer. What did this have to do with Sunday, and had she really known Apple for less than six months?

“Then has she ever mentioned anything about her—”

“Okay!” Apple said loudly, and they looked over to see that the ranger was finally gone. “We aren’t too far off schedule, but we don’t have any time to waste. Places!”

_-The lighting setup here is amazing. It’s like a puzzle game: How many gofers does it take to bounce a beam of sunlight into PC’s face?_

With a lack of electricity in the great outdoors, they were forced to rely on natural light. Briar stationed reflectors at various points to brighten up the shadows in the deeper forest. She’d also switched out the tripod for a handheld gyroscopic rig, which would have no trouble with the uneven terrain.

Raven couldn’t stop staring at the camera. No matter how Briar moved or gestured, it remained perfectly still. It was almost creepy.

_-DP just sprinted through the forest and the shot came out flawlessly. That’s not a camera rig, that’s witchcraft._

“Perfect,” Apple said. “Let’s keep moving, everyone. Our next location is a few minutes away, if you’ll just follow me.”

_-Roommate is leading us way off the beaten path. This may be it for us._

_-Nah it’s fine, we’re not getting murdered, we’re just getting ready to drop PC off a cliff._

“Look, it’s perfectly safe,” said Faybelle. “It’s not that steep, there aren’t any rocks, it’s just bam bam bam done. Any idiot could figure this out. Can I go now?”

“Well,” Apple said, “you still need to actually do the stunt.”

“Excuse me,” Faybelle stared at her. “Did you think _I_ would be the one rolling around in the dirt today? Because, no. Have you even looked at this dress?”

“You’d be in costume—” Apple began.

“I coordinate the stunts, I don’t _perform_ them,” Faybelle said. “Just push Darling off, she’ll be fine.”

“Actually—” said Darling.

“Mm, well, between the two of you, she’s the more valuable one,” Briar said, “so I think we’d rather risk you.”

“I just told you she’d be fine!”

“Seems to me that if it really is so safe, you shouldn’t be so nervous about doing it yourself.”

“Me? Nervous?” Faybelle rolled her eyes. “Please, Beauty, I know how to take a hit. You’re the one hiding behind a camera.”

Raven looked at Apple. Shouldn’t she be intervening? Usually an argument on set lasted all of half a second before the director swooped in to settle things down. But now, she was just watching calmly as her cinematographer and her stunt coordinator—stunt double?—sniped at each other.

“Who’s hiding?” Briar handed the camera off to a startled Blondie and stalked towards the edge of the ravine.

“Oh, so you’re going to prove your point by jumping into a ditch.” Faybelle snarked. “Very clever. Except that you’re about to fall headfirst into a blackberry bush.”

“And I’m sure you can do it perfectly.” Raven’s jaw dropped as Briar sprung the trap.

“You say that like it’s actually difficult.” Faybelle ran forward and tumbled roughly over the edge of the ravine. She popped up at the bottom, dusty but unharmed, and gave Briar a victorious smirk.

Briar smirked back. “Great job, genius. Now do it again in costume this time.”

_-I’m not sure what I just saw except wow our stunt coordinator was outfoxed hard._

The fall was only the first of three stunts, one for each time the queen cursed Snow. There were no dwarves to rescue her, initially due to production constraints.

“It’s hard to justify seven extra actors in such a short script,” Holly had explained once. “I tried so hard to trim them down to just one character, because otherwise who would save Snow from the comb and the corset, and then I realized—wouldn’t it be great if she died alone?”

_-“Wouldn’t it be great if she died alone?!” --actual quote said by the writer while writing the script_

So Snow rescued herself, which the producers all thought was a better story anyway, up until the final curse. They’d bought a whole bag of apples and wired them one at a time to a magnolia (Who would notice or care? It was already improbably magical and poisonous anyway.) tree.

Again and again, Darling picked the apple, took a bite, and collapsed to the soft and leafy forest floor. She got to perform this stunt herself, to Faybelle’s carefully indifferent relief.

They finished the scheduled shots and got out of the forest before the sun could move too far and ruin continuity. It was the shortest day of filming yet. Apple watched playback on the camera and looked very pleased with herself.

“The tracking shot turned out better than I expected,” she said. “With the stabilizer, I thought there might be some loss of control in tilting and panning, but Briar followed Darling perfectly.” She skipped a few clips ahead. “And the stunts look good, too.”

“Did you and Briar plan that con?” Raven asked. “You know, with the whole, anything you can do…?”

“We didn’t plan it, no. Faybelle is also a photo major,” Apple explained, “but she came in on a sports scholarship and Briar took offense to the thought that she picked it because it was the easiest.”

“Did she?”

“If she did, she knows better now,” Apple said. “Anyway, they’ve had more than enough classes together to settle into a friendly rivalry—”

If that was friendly, Raven would love to see how they’d started out.

“—and their competitiveness is excellent motivation for either one of them,” Apple finished, satisfied.

“So Briar falls for it too, huh?”

Apple said, “I guess you haven’t heard the full story behind last year’s HvZ finale.”

Raven lurched to a halt several feet in front of the stop sign and turned to stare at Apple. “That was _them_?!”

*

_Short day of filming, liveblog here. The outdoor background noise was just as bad as I thought, but I got to see different lighting and camera techniques for when you need to stay mobile. It’s a lot more intuitive and natural than all the precise stationary tripod work we were doing before. Getting to watch the behind-the-scenes stunt work was pretty cool too. I can’t believe some of the stuff that Roommate says is going into the final cut, but I guess there’s a lot you can get away with when you have postproduction._

_But honestly though, the most important thing I learned today is that DP and Outfoxed the stunt coordinator are actually campus legends! Apparently they get really competitive with each other because of some rivalry in the photo department. And somehow that leads to things like zombie flashmobs and the freshman dorms’ pool getting drained and filled to the brim with marshmallows._

_It was all anyone would talk about last spring, because they had no idea who would do something like that. Now that I know the full story I’m really not surprised. Roommate’s friends are weird._

*

For their second day in the forest, Darling was the only actor on set. She came out of the cargo trailer changing room with light makeup, hair loose and wavy, wearing the gently distressed version of her frock. The crew waited with equipment in hand for instructions on what to do and where to be.

Apple capped her pen, tucked her clipboard under her arm, and said, “How do you feel about improvisation?”

_-Week 2 day 2 and the world is ending. Roommate just said there’s no shot list and the only thing written on the schedule is “have fun :)”_

Raven was one of those people who liked nature just fine, in small enough doses. If she had been told to amuse herself in the middle of a wildlife preserve, she would have run out of actions very quickly.

Darling either loved the outdoors much more than her title “family spider-killer” suggested, or she was just that good at improvising, which seemed unfair for an amateur. She wandered through the forest, stopping to examine flowers and pick up rocks. She climbed a tree and splashed through a river, then kicked off her shoes to let them dry.

Briar kept up through it all, magical camera rig steady in her hands—often a little too steady. Apple’s original concern of over-stabilizing proved valid, and the frame of the first few shots occasionally spun off towards unremarkable shrubbery as Darling made an abrupt turn. This was countered by giving Faybelle a wireless joystick to control the camera’s pan and focus.

_-Witchcraft camera needs extra hands. Coming soon: another sure-to-be glorious collab featuring DP and Outfoxed._

“What is this?” Faybelle complained. “I didn’t sign up to play video games, I’m not getting paid for carpal tunnel—”

“No one’s getting paid except in food,” Briar said. “Just take the damn joystick, Faybelle.”

“I’m only doing this because your composition requires serious help,” Faybelle informed her.

They resumed filming once Faybelle had settled in front of the Bluetooth monitor. Apple watched with her, taking notes with a smile that kept growing wider.

_-Roommate is surprisingly happy with these improv shots. She’s not even asking for extra takes from new angles._

There was no dialogue for Raven to capture, which meant filming remained uninterrupted by the commotion that broke out among the gofers. A terrified baby squirrel had fallen out of a tree and right into Rosabella’s tote bag; after ten minutes, Ashlynn and Rosabella managed to coax it out with promises of safety and trail mix. Hunter climbed over twenty feet up a tree, one-handed, to return the squirrel to its nest.

Apple, Darling, and the camera operators seemed oblivious to the entire ordeal, even when Hunter decided to go shirtless for the rest of the shoot.

_-Jeez, Pickup Truck has the biceps of Captain America. No wonder everyone calls him to move their furniture._

_-He tore his sleeve on a tree branch and I guess that bothered him so much he thought he’d take his shirt off entirely._

_-It’s a nice view but I don’t think Roommate’s even noticed. She’s so focused on the shoot that she hasn’t looked away from PC for a second._

Ashlynn and some of the gofers didn’t have the same restraint, but they were on standby anyway; there was no way to set up reflectors with so many moving parts already. Darling found a stretch of woods where the moss in the trees diffused the light beautifully and every photo and film major nearly fainted in excitement.

_-Fun fact: for continuity, the actual brightness of the lighting doesn’t matter as much as the ratio between highlight and shadow._

Finally, after about an hour and a half, Briar hung the camera on a C-stand and flexed her wrists. “Okay, my arms are getting tired. Mind if we switch off?”

“Actually,” Apple said, “we can take a twenty-minute break if you need one. We already have a lot of great footage and there’s enough light left in the day to get more.”

Briar sat down where she was and leaned up against the roots of a twisted tree. “Fine by me,” she yawned. Her eyes closed and her head drifted sideways. Despite the uncomfortable-looking angle of her neck, she was out cold within seconds. The shoot must have been exhausting; Briar could fall asleep at the drop of a hat but there were one too many archival photos of her Sharpie’d face for her to be entirely unconcerned about Kitty and Faybelle.

Raven wondered if the rest of the crew felt as awkward as she did, taking advantage of an undeserved hiatus. Ashlynn led Darling over to the far side of the clearing to practice bird calls. No one else showed an appreciable difference between filming and break time, and shuffled quietly around, trying not to disturb the napping cinematographer.

Raven sat on a log and yawned. Too bad all of the sound equipment made it impossible to lie down. Twenty minutes wasn’t really enough to feel rested, anyway.

The bird calls had called some actual birds. They sat up in the trees, chirping back to Ashlynn and Darling. Almost everyone was watching them now, for lack of anything better to do. Briar was unbothered by the noise. Maybe she’d also had trouble with smoke alarms, and was just used to it now.

There was a series of quiet gasps from various members of the crew.

“Apple,” Ashlynn said, softly and urgently, “get the camera.”

Raven looked to see what had everyone so worked up.

No way. There was no possible way this could actually be happening.

A doe stood at the far side of the clearing, ears flicking curiously. Ashlynn was slowly backing away, leaving Darling to bribe her with a handful of fruit. As they watched, a second deer stepped out from the trees, this one a buck.

It was a perfect shot.

The camera was still hanging over next to Briar, and Briar was still asleep.

The deer paced closer to Darling. Apple stood, taking a step forward. She froze when the buck turned to stare at her.

No one dared to move. Apple looked torn, clearly wanting to record the moment but too worried about scaring off their visitors. Both deer decided that all was well and continued on.

The camera turned silently in the rig.

_-Holy shit Runner actually did it two deer just wandered out to say hi to Perfectly Charming and the camera is getting it all_

When the deer were eating out of Darling’s hand, Faybelle looked up from the monitor to find everyone watching her with varying degrees of shock and awe. Apple looked like she was about to explode from gratitude, and was only containing herself for the good of the shot.

“Look,” Faybelle whispered, “I can do the job I’m given, okay? All I have to say is that lunch had better be the most goddamned delicious thing I’ve ever eaten.”

*

_Roommate sent us home early today because she was just so happy about getting the deer on film. Credit goes to Outfoxed for remembering that the camera rig is motorized and hitting record without scaring them off. She’s using it as ammo against DP in their never-ending rivalry. DP is pissed that she missed the shot but still counting it as a win because she got out of the experience without having ducks drawn on her face. Perfectly Charming is being kind of nonchalant about it all. Maybe this sort of thing is common for her._

_To be honest, though, I’m really not thinking about today as much as anticipating tomorrow. It’s the last day of shooting, which means that Roommate’s actual boyfriend will be in town. I honestly have no idea what to expect from this guy. I know he’s an actor, he might be a jock. And he’s probably hyper competent at his job, like most people that Roommate knows. (Remember way back when I said she was probably desperate for hiring her friends? After actually being on set I can tell you that I was very wrong.)_

_The funny thing is that Perfectly Charming has never met Actual Boyfriend either, even though he’s playing her love interest. Theoretically, they’re both pretty good actors, but I think she’s a little nervous, since she’s been trying to ask me what he’s like for two days. But even if we hadn’t already established that I don’t know anything, I wouldn’t be able to tell her anyway. Roommate wants the first time they meet to be on camera, like a method acting thing. Whether they click or not, it should be a fun experiment._

_Anyway, we’ll see what happens tomorrow at 8 AM sharp. Keep up with the liveblog here._

*

**_Anonymous asked: Okay, I have to know, was “ducks” a typo/autocorrect or do your friends actually draw waterfowl on each other’s faces?_ **

_It wasn’t a typo. ;)_

*

The first thing they did on week two day three of shooting was set up the reaction shots after the prince woke Snow up with True Love’s Kiss. Darling lay on the ground, eyes closed, hands folded, hair and dress artfully yet spontaneously arranged. Her prince was brought in backwards, so he wouldn’t see her too early. It was like some corrupted remix of a wedding march mashed up with _Romeo and Juliet_. The suspense was unbelievable.

“Alright, you two, you can look on _action_ ,” Apple said, grinning. She was bouncing from excitement, tiny little movements that rustled the leaves underfoot. “Camera.”

“Rolling.”

“Sound.”

“Speeding.” Raven put a hand on Apple’s shoulder to hold her still and quiet the rustling.

“And…” This was it. The moment of truth. “Action!”

The two love interests took one look at each other and immediately recoiled.

“Darling?!”

“Daring?!”

“Cut,” Apple said, perplexed. “Do you two know each other?”

“She’s my sister,” Daring said.

There was a stillness on set, as if they had all been dropped into a soundproof studio. Raven checked the volume on her headphones.

“…Oh,” said Apple.

_-I can’t believe this. A coincidence this big could only happen on Roommate’s set. Perfectly Charming and Actual Boyfriend are siblings!_

_-I wish you could see their faces on that first take oh my god_

With the attitudes of true professionals, Darling and Daring were willing to give it another take or two, now that they’d gotten the initial shock out of the way. They filmed the reactions again and again, until Daring stopped playing so over-the-top and Darling stopped bursting into giggles. They jumped back, and filmed the scene where Daring first discovered Darling lying asleep in the grass. They did not film the actual True Love’s Kiss, because professional attitudes or no professional attitudes, the Charmings’ faces at the mere thought made it clear that even faking it wouldn’t be possible.

“We’ll cut around it,” Apple said with manic cheer. “There’s a lot we can do to imply—” She straightened suddenly with new determination. “Actually, we need to do a couple more reactions. POV shots this time.”

Point of view shots was a great idea, because only one sibling was on camera at a time and therefore a stand-in could be used for the eyeline. The increase in quality was instantly apparent.

“I think we’ll use that take,” Apple said, stepping back from where she was watching Darling’s performance over Briar’s shoulder. She sounded actually cheerful now, instead of her earlier mix of forced optimism and panicked disbelief.

Blondie made a mark on her clipboard. Apple checked her notes, which were a scribbled mess.

“Alright, everyone, let’s pack it up, and thank you for all your hard work. Snowfall is in the can.”

Raven turned off her equipment to the sound of whoops and cheers.

_-That’s it. I guess we’re done filming now._

It was all very abrupt and anticlimactic. Raven still felt like she was waiting for something to do. And then as soon as they got back into the city, Apple convened an executive meeting in the living room.

Raven wasn’t an executive but she had free rein of the venue, and as she was microwaving dinner she couldn’t help asking, “How could you not know Darling and Daring were siblings?”

“It never occurred to me to ask,” Apple said defensively.

“You’re dating one of them. They have the _same last name_.”

“Charming is a very common surname, I’ll have you know,” Apple said.

Raven raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“It’s true,” Ashlynn said. “I have Charmings on my dad’s side of the family.”

“My stepdad and half-brothers,” Briar volunteered.

“My dad, too,” Holly said.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” said Raven. “And none of you are related?”

They all shook their heads.

“Trust me, I’d know,” Briar said. “The Christmas reunion is mandatory.”

“Objection mostly withdrawn,” Raven said. “Twenty percent of my objection is staying on grounds of this is just too ridiculous.”

“Anyway,” Apple said with a deep, deep sigh, “I thought it would be a good idea to go over what we have to work with, and maybe all of us will be able to figure out a solution.”

They played the dailies. With the clarifying power of the big-screen television, there was no way to hide from the cold and heartless truth.

Apple said, “We have some really great shots.”

“That’s true,” Blondie agreed, “except you can’t cut an entire scene together with only one of them onscreen at a time.”

“Some of the wide shots look okay,” Briar said. “Especially that tracking one where the trees keep blocking their faces.”

“But the trees keep blocking their faces,” Blondie pointed out.

“It’s an aesthetic,” Briar countered. “And it’ll make the dialogue easier to replace, anyway.”

Apple quietly sank forward and buried her face in her hands. Personally, Raven didn’t think it was as bad as the execs were making it out to be, but maybe she just had lower standards.

“What if we used their natural chemistry instead?” Holly suggested. “The blooper reel has a lot of material we might be able to use.”

Apple sat up, thoughtful. “We should take a look, then.”

“I don’t think there’s enough for a full scene,” Ashlynn said, “especially if you want to avoid some of the more comedic takes. We’d have to do pickups.”

Apple frowned. “I suppose pickups are unavoidable,” she said.

Briar laughed. “Or you’re stuck with mix and match. Close-ups from the script, mid shots from the bloopers, and wide shots from whichever works better. You can call it, I don’t know, some kind of exploration of parallel worlds or past lives or something.”

Holly and Ashlynn laughed. Blondie groaned. Apple actually looked like she was seriously considering the idea, before mentally talking herself out of it.

“If you’re going to reshoot it,” Raven said, “why don’t you just go find some guy who Darling actually likes?”

Apple stared at her.

“She has at least one other brother, by the way,” Raven added. “So maybe double check on that.”

“That is an idea,” Apple said slowly. “Although I would hate to start from scratch…”

Raven shrugged and got her lasagna out of the microwave.

Apple thought for a moment. “Raven, when’s the latest I can get you picture lock?”

“What?” Raven said, startled.

“How long do you need to do the final sound mix?”

Raven opened her mouth, then closed it. “For me to do what now?”

*

_So apparently my contract says I’m also doing postproduction sound. Funny thing, I had no idea because I didn’t actually read my contract before signing it. Roommate lectured me for twenty minutes about how irresponsible I am about legally binding paperwork, then offered to let me out of it anyway._

_Me, being the irresponsible idiot I am, told her no, of course I’d do it, I may not have read my contract but I am sure going to stick to it!_

_No way that’s coming back to bite me in the ass._

_Anyway, we technically finished shooting today ( liveblog) but Roommate is already talking about pickups. She’s thinking about replacing Actual Boyfriend with someone who isn’t, you know, related to Perfectly Charming. Either that, or rewriting the relationship so that the characters actually are family._

_What this means to me is that I’m probably not getting picture lock for a while. Which is good because at least it gives me time to look up all the things about sound editing that I’m already supposed to know. But also bad because the longer it takes to get picture lock, the less time I have to finish the thing before it’s due. This is a true dilemma, Internet._

_P.S. Any sound designers out there with tips for a desperate newbie?_

*

To the uninitiated, the editing process was both obscure and mystifying. Raven wandered past Apple’s door on her way upstairs and was greeted by the sound of Faybelle bouncing into the ravine. Again. And again. And again.

Raven knocked on the door and poked her head in. “Apple?”

The loop paused, and Apple turned away from her computer with her headphones hanging around her neck. “Raven! I’m sorry, am I disturbing you? I’ll put the headphones back in soon, I’m just trying to figure out if I can use this take or if the background noise is too much.”

“You mean the background noise of Faybelle cursing all of our ancestors back into primordial ooze?” Raven asked.

“Exactly that,” Apple said with a sigh. She clicked to the previous take and hit play.

There was a very familiar thump-thump-thump-crash, minus the cursing. Faybelle rolled a little further in the second take, but as far as Raven could tell, there was nothing onscreen that would make Apple look so dissatisfied.

“Why do you like the first one better?” she asked.

“It matches better with the beginning of the next shot,” Apple said. With a series of clicks and keyboard shortcuts, she separated out and deleted the beginning and end of the clip, then spliced it in between two other clips. The three-clip sequence showed Darling running, Faybelle tumbling down the ravine, and Darling lying on the ground, though Raven wouldn’t have known they were different people if she hadn’t been present for filming. There was, however, the slightest jump between the second and third clip, where Snow seemed to shift position.

Apple played it twice more, shook her head, and deleted the middle clip, replacing it with the cursing take and muting the whole thing.

“And,” Raven said slowly, “why didn’t you just use that one the first place?”

“Raven, are you going to backseat-edit the whole time?” Apple asked.

“Sorry,” Raven said, stepping back with her hands in the air. “I was just curious.”

“Well, alright,” Apple said, sliding her headphones off entirely. “You can watch, but it’ll take too long for me to explain everything. A lot of it is instinct, anyway.”

Raven pulled up a chair, watching Apple click through her clips and apply them to the timeline keystroke by keystroke. If editing was an instinct, then Raven didn’t have it; she had no earthly clue why Apple chose the shots she did and was once or twice completely blindsided by how long or short they were allowed to run.

But as Apple cut together the scenes of Snow in the forest, she seemed to know exactly what she was looking for. Darling walked beneath a natural forest archway and Apple clicked right past it; several shots later Darling walked back in the opposite direction and Apple immediately spliced it in. Her notes lay on the desk but she didn’t refer to them beyond an occasional glance, like she’d memorized the entire day of shooting.

It was fascinating to watch and also intimidating as hell. Raven was sure that her mixing workflow would be much slower and far more prone to trial and error.

Finally, she couldn’t resist breaking the silence to ask, “How do you do that? You’re not even playing half the clips.”

“Part of it is that I pay close attention during filming and when I watch dailies,” Apple said. “I start putting it together before I even turn on the computer.” She paused, shuffling between a few clips, and opened one up in the viewing window.

Darling opened her eyes, blinking slowly, her entire face lighting up as she caught sight of someone standing just off-camera.

“And sometimes, I just…know.”

*

_I watched Roommate do some editing today and it was pretty impressive. She was just plugging away like she’d been preprogrammed or something, only no robot could put together a film so intuitively. I think it’s some kind of fugue state perpetuated by some advanced alien race? She says it’s partially just paying attention on set, but then she must have been looking really close. Maybe credit goes to Perfectly Charming for that one. Or maybe that’s just what directors do._

_I’m honestly kind of scared about when it’s my turn. Most likely, I’m going to struggle forever and end up ruining the whole thing. But if I don’t and everything just clicks, does that mean I’ve been possessed by extraterrestrials?_

*

Raven went back to work at the coffee shop for the first time in two weeks and was met with an order for a hot mocha, medium. Dexter looked frazzled beyond all rational thought with a side order of relieved, like he hadn’t slept in days and was no longer cognizant of any consequences to his actions. This wasn’t too unusual for a sequential kid, but Raven had no idea why he’d pull an all-nighter when he had no classes that day.

“So I haven’t seen you around much lately,” Dexter said. He took his cup in both hands and sat at a table.

“Yeah, I was on set, recording sound,” Raven said. “What about you, what happened to you? You’re so tired you’re actually drinking your coffee today.”

Dexter paused mid-sip, then swallowed his coffee with a grimace. “My brother was in town and convinced me to go drinking last night.”

Raven supposed Daring had to entertain himself somehow, since Apple had been home all week muttering feverishly over her editing. “It’s the weekend, Dexter, you should’ve slept in.”

“Make-up class,” he said.

“Oh.” Raven winced in sympathy.

“But I’m totally fine, really,” he said, and knocked his coffee cup off the table with a clumsy wave of his hand.

Raven convinced Dexter to go home and recover, assuring him that he didn’t need to help and it wasn’t any trouble at all. He left with a morose expression and drops of chocolate and coffee dotting the hem of his scarf.

Maddie appeared from the back as Raven was cleaning up the spill.

“Poor Dexter,” she said.

Raven asked, “Why do you always disappear when Dexter comes in?”

“So he can have a chance to talk to you, of course,” said Maddie.

“He’s not going to choke if there’s more than two people in the room,” Raven said. “I mean. Not anymore.”

Maddie giggled. “Remember the second time he came in and there was another customer behind him, and all he could say was, ‘uh, the, well, I guess…’” The last few words were stuttered out and so accurate to the source that Raven had to laugh.

“I didn’t know you could do impressions,” she said.

“If you thought that was good, you should hear my pterodactyl,” Maddie said. She hunched her neck, then lifted her arms and flapped them up and down, releasing an impressive screech on each upbeat.

“The wings are a nice touch,” Raven said.

“I have to flap my arms or it doesn’t work,” Maddie explained. “Oh! And here’s my impression of a pterodactyl during an extinction event!”

The resulting explosion sound was so realistic that Raven ducked for cover, as did the family of five who’d just entered the coffee shop. Whoops.

Maddie effortlessly switched gears from perishing prehistoric beast into mild-mannered barista. “Hi, what can I get started for you?”

“Can you make me a _bomb_?” one of the children asked, awed.

Raven cringed at the parents’ angry glares. Definitely whoops.

*

_Today I picked my shifts back up at the coffee shop. You know, I actually missed working there, Internet? It’s nice to have money and I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten to the point where making drinks is autopilot now, which is weirdly sort of relaxing._

_Unfortunately, you don’t get a joke from Hype today. She was too busy doing impressions this shift, which are unbelievably realistic and almost got the cops called on us once. I’m grateful and at the same time kind of awed that she’s considered the supervisor._

_Everything’s quiet on the film front for now but finals are coming up so I’m not any less busy. I’ll let you guys know if things change._

*

_Yay I passed finals. Now we have a week of break, which includes St. Patrick’s Day. Usually I go on actual vacation out of town but this year I’m too poor. Apparently it can get pretty wild. Wish me luck???_

*

_Wow omg I don’t knw why iwas such a down atbout st pat !!! he is great and green is great I love green even thogh everyone asy s green hates me. I think I  saw pizaz girl at the parade but I don’t know if she saw me bcshe dind’t wave back_

_Now im’ sad_

_I’m so dronk_

*

**_Anonymous asked: Do you have a crush on pizza girl?_ **

_I just read over last night’s post so I could see why you might think that but honestly I don’t know if I’ve even made eye contact with Pizza Girl._

_Also if something is misspelled that badly I would definitely recommend you take it with a grain of salt._


	5. Postproduction 3-1

The Tuesday after the quarter began, Apple entered the apartment, failed to latch the door behind her, and marched mechanically into the living room to lie face down on the couch. Raven, who had been hypnotized to sleep by class reading, was startled awake by this very un-Apple-like behavior and peered over at her in concern.

“Hey, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Apple turned her head. “Nothing’s wrong, exactly,” she said. “Well, I suppose we may not be able to get those pickups after all.”

Raven tried to analyze the expression on Apple’s face. Was it shock? Resignation? The particular look of trying and failing to remember the name of an elementary school teacher? Raven was terrible at this sort of thing. She settled for asking, “What happened?”

“I asked Darling to help me audition some actors for the prince,” Apple said. “I told her I wanted to find someone she could possibly fall in love with. She rejected every choice.”

“So, she’s a little picky,” Raven said, not quite understanding Apple’s grave countenance. “That doesn’t mean you won’t find her prince eventually.”

“She’s a lesbian,” said Apple.

“Ah…” Raven blinked. “Is it alright for you to tell me that?”

“Apparently,” Apple said, “it wasn’t a secret.”

Raven blinked again. “Huh.”

“I know!” Apple said, suddenly animated; she sat up to wave her arms wildly. “It’s not obvious, is it?! I told Briar and she just started laughing at me! I mean, it’s art school, I really shouldn’t be surprised, but how am I supposed to _know_?!”

“I have no idea,” Raven said, now feeling faintly bewildered by both the news and Apple’s odd reaction to it. “Apple, why are you upset about this? Because she’s a lesbian, or because you didn’t figure it out?”

Apple sighed, all of the energy leaving her as she slumped against the cushions. “I have other things to worry about,” she said. “I can’t get a princess without rewriting some of the dialogue in the queen’s last scene—”

“Bad idea,” Raven agreed hurriedly.

“—and Daring’s already flown back to LA. We can’t do the pickups without him.”

“You don’t think Darling can act it if you find another prince?”

“I don’t think she’s interested in trying,” Apple said. “We’ll just have to do the best we can with what we have.”

*

_We are moving forward pickup-less and Roommate is barricaded in with her computer at all hours of the day. Looks like I’ll be getting picture lock faster than expected. Lucky me._

*

“Apple?” Raven, holding a plate of sandwiches, knocked on her roommate’s door. “Hey. I know you’re doing some delicate editing or whatever but have you eaten at all in the past two days?”

No response. Raven wondered if Apple was asleep, and just getting food on an odd schedule. But then, there were dishes in the drying rack, which meant that Apple hadn’t used the kitchen. Apple always cleared the dishrack after cooking. And if she was eating takeout, well, that was its own problem.

“Apple?” Raven said again, and opened the door.

Apple was alive, but had her headphones on and her gaze pointed directly ahead, completely focused on her monitor. She was also…wearing glasses? The red frames were cute and suited her quite well, but the sight was so jarring that Raven almost dropped the sandwiches.

As it was, she made a loud enough sound of surprise for Apple to look away from her work.

“Raven?”

“I, uh, brought food?” Raven said. “One breakfast sandwich and one lunch sandwich.”

“But it’s only—” Apple looked at the corner of her screen. “Oh. Thank you very much.”

Raven surrendered the food and looked over Apple’s shoulder at her progress. “How are you doing?”

Apple noticed she was still wearing her glasses and hastily shoved them in a desk drawer. “As well as can be expected.” She navigated to a folder and opened up a video. “This is what I put together with all the best acting choices.”

Raven watched the video, a dull thing filled with close-ups and the occasional out-of-place wide shot where faces weren’t visible. “Hm,” she said noncommittally.

“And here’s what I’m doing now.” Apple pulled up her timeline. From thumbnails alone, it looked like about half the clips had been replaced with different angles. From thumbnails alone, it looked like it was shaping up to be a very uncomfortable scene.

“Is it weird for you, too?” Raven asked. Apple gave her a questioning looked, and she clarified, “Cutting a scene between your boyfriend and another woman. Even if she is his sister.”

“You think I’m jealous of _Darling_?” Apple asked.

“Well, no, not when you put it that way,” Raven said. “I don’t know, I feel like you’ve kind of stumbled into a unique situation here. This sort of thing doesn’t happen every day.”

“I think you’d be right about that,” Apple said, resigned. She scrolled through the clips and stopped on the first take of the last day; Raven couldn’t help a tiny snort of laughter at the sight of the two siblings lurching away from each other. “Eight years of dating and this is the first time I’ve seen Daring make an expression like this.”

“So you two started out in high school?” Raven asked. “Long distance must be hard, then.”

“Not really,” Apple said. “Neither of us wanted to hold the other back, so it was really the best decision for both of us.”

“…Huh,” said Raven.

Apple toggled through a few clips of Darling, then finished off the last of her lunch sandwich and stood from her computer chair. “I think I need to take a break and clear my head. Sorry about the delay, I’ll try to get this finished as soon as possible.”

“There’s no rush,” Raven said. “Really.”

*

_Eight years is a long time to be committed to a person, isn’t it? I might not be the best judge of these things, but I barely stuck to my major for three years so I can’t even imagine eight. But the thing is, are you really so committed if you haven’t met his family in all that time? Or if half of it is long distance and you don’t really seem to miss him at all?_

_So I guess it’s not eight years that gets me, it’s eight years without being happy?_

_I don’t know, maybe I’m just being nosy. Like I don’t have enough on my plate already._

*

It turned out that work on the Snowfall mix wasn’t actually that difficult, it just took forever. Apple had already gotten quite a bit done during her editing; every take had relatively clean dialogue cut the way she wanted it. Raven’s responsibilities started with layering in sound effects and background noise. The process was tedious, requiring frame-by-frame precision and just enough brainpower to exhaust her without being actively interesting. Her timeline became a field of little yellow markers like popcorn kernels demanding her attention: twig snap here, leaves rustle here, this needs music (find some!!!).

It didn’t help that she was also taking three studio classes and working at the coffee shop. Starting the mix early let her spread the workload a little thinner, but she was at the point where any thickness of workload was a very unwelcome addition. After her first week, the film was somewhat on schedule, but Raven was going home still behind on her schoolwork. She’d been forced to end the day early, ousted from her station by another sound designer with a reservation. Everything was starting to book solid and the building wasn’t even open twenty-four hours a day.

She could complain to the administration. Apple’s success with Grimm made the idea seem not completely useless. Maybe Raven would even throw in some comments about the equipment, too, she was pretty sure that the computer keys were starting to wobble on the shortcuts.

Actually, everything was sort of starting to wobble. She stopped and leaned against a light post, rubbing her eyes. When the spots began to fade, she straightened up and continued on toward—

_HONK!_

Raven stumbled. A hand grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back onto the sidewalk.

“Hey, Raven,” a voice said, “are you okay?”

“Pizza Girl?” Raven asked. A split second later, she realized—“Sorry, Cerise! I know your name, I just—I’ve been working all day—”

“Me too,” said Cerise, who was wearing her Red Hot Pizza uniform t-shirt. The slipped nickname was really not Raven’s fault. “Did you eat dinner? Lunch?” Pause. “Breakfast?”

“Um,” Raven remembered the half-bag of chips in her backpack, “sort of?”

Cerise gave her an appraising look. “Follow me.” She had long legs, but shortened her stride so Raven could keep up.

They walked a block and a half down to the pizza parlor. Cerise breezed right in past the concierge booth and pushed Raven down into a chair.

“You’re not allergic to anything, are you?” she asked.

“No,” Raven said.

Cerise left and returned with a tall soda. “Caffeine?” she offered.

Raven took a sip and felt the cold clear away some of the haze at the corner of her eyes. The restaurant walls were covered in murals, the floor packed with tables and booths. Only a few of them were filled, which seemed a little slow for—Raven checked her watch—holy crow, it was that late already?!

“Thanks,” she said belatedly. “I thought Red Hot closed at ten on weekdays.”

“I have an in with the owner,” Cerise said. “What were you working on?”

“A few things. Some homework. My field recording class went out to, uh, record in the field. And Snowfall, of course.” Raven remembered that Cerise probably hadn’t seen Apple’s cut yet. “I think it’s looking pretty good. Sound is a different story, though, the rough pass is only about halfway done. I still have to do a lot with the mix, and I haven’t even started thinking about—”

“It’s going to sound great,” Cerise interrupted. “Don’t worry so much and eat some pizza.”

On cue, two plates and a large pie loaded with pepperoni, sausage, and bacon were delivered to the table.

“Thanks, Mom,” Cerise said to the waitress.

An in with the owner, huh? Raven could see the resemblance between the two, the same bone structure and dark brown hair. Cerise was a little taller, with a straighter nose, and steel gray eyes instead of warm brown.

“Thank you,” Raven echoed, but didn’t reach for a slice.

“You need to eat something or you’ll faint again,” Cerise said over the two slices already on her plate.

“I didn’t _faint_ ,” Raven said indignantly. Cerise just looked at her. Grudgingly, she admitted, “It was a swoon at worst.”

Cerise took a bite of pizza, chewed, and swallowed. “Look, Raven, if you’re already this stressed, I’d hate to see you at midterms. You probably worked for at least twelve hours today, right? You deserve to take a break.”

The pizza smelled amazing. Raven reached for her plate.

*

_So I almost walked into traffic today. Side effect of sleep deprivation and not eating all day, apparently. Luckily, Pizza Girl happened to be passing by and rescued me. She says I’m stressed. I wish I’d read my contract now because if I’d known I was doing post sound I would have scheduled all my easy classes for this quarter instead of loading up on studios._

_I mean, I guess the silver lining is that the stuff I’m learning in class is applicable to the film. So at least I’m not flying completely blind anymore. Not sure if it’s worth it yet though. We’ll see when midterms comes around._

*

**_Anonymous asked: I know you said you didn’t have a crush on pizza girl (actually you dodged the question but I will take the answer as you probably intended) but does pizza girl have a crush on YOU?_ **

_??? What would make you think that? How would I even know?_

*

The next time Raven saw a Charming in her coffee shop, it was not the Charming she expected.

“Hi, Darling,” she said. “What can I get you?”

“Do you have a moment to talk?” Darling seemed fidgety, not quite her usual poised self. Her blonde hair had been left down instead of tied up, and her long-sleeved blouse was wrinkled on one arm, near the wrist.

“Uh.” Raven looked around the shop, devoid of customers. “Sure. Maddie—”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it!” Her supervisor waved her off.

Raven and Darling went to one of the tables in the corner. It had the retro/space-age look of something designed for form instead of function, and would barely hold two cups of coffee. The chairs were similarly uncomfortable, and Raven had long ago given up on trying to sit in a way that didn’t make some part of her go numb. Darling shifted once or twice, then scooted forward to perch at the very edge of the chair.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Raven asked.

“Well, it’s about Apple,” Darling began. “The last time I talked to her, she…she started acting strange, and ran off in a hurry. That was over three weeks ago, and I haven’t seen her since. Do you…” Darling sighed. “Did she tell you what we talked about?”

Three weeks ago was just about the beginning of the quarter. “You mean when you two auditioned the new prince? Yeah.”

Darling leaned forward, one hand gripping the sleeve at the opposite wrist. “Then, do you know if she’s avoiding me?”

“Hm, that doesn’t really sound like Apple.” Raven thought about it. “I doubt she was avoiding you specifically. Up until last week she was editing Snowfall and didn’t have time for much else.”

Darling frowned. “And now?”

Raven shrugged sheepishly. “It’s my turn to be busy. I have no idea what she’s up to these days, I’ve barely seen her.”

“Oh.” Darling sat back, disappointed, then straightened up again to avoid an oddly placed corner. After a moment, she said, “This is a little uncomfortable.”

Raven said, “The chair, or the conversation?” and immediately clamped her mouth shut.

Darling started to stand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“No wait,” Raven said, grabbing her wrist to keep her seated. “It’s my fault, I was trying not to say something stupid or offensive but obviously that failed, so.” She took a breath.

Darling was playing with her sleeve again, wrinkling it and smoothing it back out. In that moment, she reminded Raven so much of Dexter that it was impossible to hold back her epiphany. “You like her.”

Darling went wide-eyed and carefully folded her hands on her lap. After a moment, she said, “I do. But…”

“Daring,” Raven finished. “That…I mean, that _sucks_.”

Darling gave a short laugh. “It really does. And with these last few weeks, well, I have no intention of pursuing her. I’d be happy if she just counted us as friends again.”

“I’m pretty sure she still does,” Raven said. At Darling’s skeptical look, she continued, “So you know we went forward without pickups, even though she wasn’t completely happy with the scenes from the last day?”

“Yes,” Darling said.

“Do you know why?”

Darling said, somewhat self-deprecatingly, “I assumed it was just another way to avoid me.”

Raven shook her head. “She wouldn’t let that get in the way of her film. You know, she was actually thinking about changing the prince to a princess? But that would mean reshooting the last scene with you and Duchess, so…”

“I can understand why she wouldn’t want to do that,” Darling agreed.

“And Daring was already gone, so the only option left would be finding another prince. She settled with the footage she already had to avoid putting you in that position. Again.”

Darling stared at her.

“I mean, I’m guessing,” Raven added, feeling a little self-conscious. “We didn’t exactly sit down and talk about this or anything.”

“No, of course,” Darling said.

“But really, that would be the best solution to this. Talking, I mean. You and her.”

Darling was beginning to look wary. “If she needs space, I don’t want to force her—”

“Just ask her,” Raven said. “Don’t make it into a bigger deal than it has to be, I’m sure she wants to clear the air as much as you do. Apple hates being on bad terms with anybody.”

Darling sat for a moment, thinking. Raven bit her lip to keep from interrupting. Finally, she seemed to gather herself before standing and giving a determined nod. “Okay. I’ll call her.”

“Good,” Raven said. She hesitated, then added, “And, you know, if you want to talk—I mean, not that I’d be able to give you advice or anything, but I can listen.”

The bell over the door jingled wildly as an entire trolley of tourists filed into the coffee shop, oohing and aahing over the bus gimmick.

“You should probably get back to work,” Darling said. “Thank you, Raven.”

“No problem,” Raven said.

*

_Why do tourists exist? All they do is drive the wrong way down one-way streets and stop in the middle of the sidewalk to take pictures of historic buildings. What is so special about old things or buildings?_

*

On Saturday, Raven drove up to the sound design building directly after work to log some hours on Snowfall. She plugged in her hard drive and headphones and opened up the project file. The timeline loaded, populating with yellow markers. Many of them were still unaddressed. One had a label typed in all caps: _THIS BGM IS TERRIBLE_.

Raven clicked over to the marker and couldn’t help snickering at the ridiculously dramatic ballad that started playing under the scene between Snow and the prince. If Apple wanted to avoid comedy, she had not succeeded with that choice of music. Those two needed something more subtle and less sweeping, something more like…

She didn’t have her synth but there was an app on her phone that was functional enough. She switched the headphones over and plunked out a little thirty-second melody, exporting it in violin and transferring it to the computer. Synced with the clips, it was a little better, less overdone, but awkward as a single lonely instrument.

Raven went back to the app and made a couple more tracks, bass line and harmony in cello and viola. It took some fiddling and experimentation to get all three working together without one overpowering the other, and she had to keep importing everything to the desktop mixer because the app didn’t support multiple tracks in one file. It was roundabout and inexact but she kept going at it until she was satisfied and her reserved work time was half gone.

She imported the file into the Snowfall project and was just about finished syncing it up when her phone rang. It was Apple. Raven answered it.

“Hey, Appl—”

“How far along are you with the mix?” Apple blurted out.

Raven guiltily zoomed out to look at the whole timeline at once. “Um. Halfway?”

“Good,” Apple said, “don’t keep working. We’re redoing Snow and the prince tomorrow, so what you have isn’t the final edit.”

“What,” Raven said.

“Darling and I talked today—it was really sweet, she was worried that I was settling for performances that really weren’t as good as they should be. And she was right, I was, so we discussed it and she came up with her other brother, Dexter. You mentioned knowing him, didn’t you? Anyway, Darling and Dexter are twins, they’re actually a lot closer than Darling and Daring are, and Dexter agreed to do a reading, which turned out really well. So Holly is editing the script and we’re going to shoot—”

“Tomorrow?” Raven said. “I have work.”

“We’re scheduled to start prepping at six,” Apple said, “and we should be done in time for you to get back, but if you don’t want to risk it I can ask someone else.”

“No, I—I think I can do it,” Raven said.

“Great!” Apple said. “I’ll see you tonight? Don’t come home too late.”

“Yeah,” Raven said. She hung up, still a little shocked. Of all the results to come out of Apple and Darling’s talk, she had not expected this one at all. Unlocking the picture, shooting a pickup on such short notice—Apple was really being unusually impulsive with this.

On the bright side, Raven had hardly gotten any work done today so at least it wouldn’t go to waste. There were a couple of hours still left in her reservation, but she could use those to get started on her homework, because she definitely wouldn’t have time for it tomorrow.

She tried to close the Snowfall project file, but a dialogue box informed her that she still had unsaved changes. Raven looked at the clip—thirty seconds of Daring and Darling trying to look romantic, with her little composition underneath.

Well, why not? She went to the file menu and exported the video.

*

_Remember how I said we weren’t doing pickups? Well, Roommate changed her mind and put together a last-minute shoot with Perfectly Charming’s other brother, since Actual Boyfriend is already out of town. (In case you’re concerned, Internet, Actual Boyfriend didn’t really seem to mind when Roommate called to tell him he’d been replaced.) I can’t imagine what she had to do to get everything ready. I’m pretty sure she needs permits and stuff? The turnaround on that must be more than a couple hours._

_In related news, I’m resurrecting the liveblog and we’re starting at 6 AM tomorrow. Guess we’ll see if Other Brother inherited any of the family acting skills. I’m reserving judgement on this one, since Roommate has a decent track record with finding talented amateurs._

_Anyway, I have to put the mixing aside for now, until Roommate re-edits everything. Hopefully, I’ll be able to import what I have for the beginning into the new file, and I can just pick up where I left off._

*

Apple loaded Raven’s car with boxes of donuts and entire cartons of coffee in addition to the sound equipment, and the hatchback became tailgate central as the crew arrived at the wildlife preserve in ones and twos.

_-Day 7 of shooting: I forgot how early we have to wake up for these things. At least Roommate brought coffee._

There were a surprising number of volunteers for the short notice, and they were armed with reflectors as Lizzie and Poppy readied the actors. Briar had the camera back in the gyroscopic rig, but would be managing without helpers for a scene that was already blocked out. Blondie flipped through the papers on her clipboard and consulted with Holly about the script.

Raven slipped on her headphones and tested the mixer. It was almost like she’d just been dropped back in time.

Dexter and Darling came out of hair and makeup. Raven waved to them. Darling waved back; Dexter started towards her before Poppy yanked him to a stop and warned him about eating or drinking in costume.

“Alright,” Apple called them all to attention. “Everything’s ready, so let’s get started with the first shot.”

_-Performance review: Other Brother is not an actor. I think it’s stage fright. He was fine in the first wide shot but choked for close-ups._

They’d just finished shot two, take nine. Dexter had remembered his lines, but it was unusable because he had glanced towards the camera, as he’d done fairly consistently for the eight takes before. Apple reminded him to breathe for the third time and told them to reset without giving any notes to Darling. She didn’t seem frustrated but Raven knew she had to be getting there.

“Apple, can I have a word?” Darling asked, standing up and brushing leaves off her costume. She and Apple went off out of earshot while Briar redistributed her reflector gofers.

Dexter went to sit on the ground, then reconsidered, probably when he realized that his costume included white pants. He sighed. Raven thought about going over to offer encouragement. It looked like Darling and Apple were still deep in conversation, so she had a little bit of time.

“How’re you doing, Dexter?”

“Gort! Uh, great!” He stared at her wide-eyed. “I mean—not great, but, okay, I guess.” He looked away and rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe I’m just not cut out for this acting thing.”

“Well, you made it past auditions, didn’t you?” Raven said. “Trust me, Apple has very high standards.”

Dexter shuffled his feet. Apple and Darling returned from their conference.

“Okay, Dexter, we’re going to try something new this time,” Apple said cheerfully. “How do you feel about doing the next take without your glasses?”

“But…I can’t see anything without my glasses,” Dexter said.

“I know,” Apple said, “but I really think it would help the camera read you. Would you mind giving it a try?”

Dexter took off his glasses and passed them to a nearby gofer.

“Wow,” someone whispered.

Apple and Darling shared a conspiratorial smile.

“Actors, on your marks,” Apple said. “Hunter, get Dexter where he needs to be; Cupid, give your reflector to Alistair and stand behind Darling—a little to the left—Dexter, keep your eyes on Cupid. Everyone ready?”

*

_So Other Brother got his act together (ha ha) and we knocked out the rest of the shots in no time flat. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but as soon as Roommate told him to take off his glasses it’s like he turned into a completely different person, and not just in the shape of his face or whatever. I guess since he’s so blind without them he stopped being so self-conscious about everyone watching? We had to use a gofer with bright pink hair for his eyeline but he nailed it almost every time. It was kind of amazing to see._

_Even more amazing is that I’m caught up on all my homework for once. Thank god Roommate won’t be able to get me the new edit until after midterms, which means I won’t have to worry about both things at once. Of course, I’d better pray for nothing to go wrong with the audio import so I can stay at least mostly on schedule with the mix._

_No jokes again today, sorry, Internet. Hype was in a mood for puns and you really need to know the context to appreciate their full beauty._

*

Raven took her reprieve and used it to stop by Red Hot Pizza the next Thursday. Fortunately, Cerise was there. Unfortunately, she was working, and the place was packed.

“The wait time is over half an hour,” she said apologetically.

“That’s cool,” Raven said, even though she was starving.

“I don’t want you fainting again,” Cerise said, looking around. She continued over Raven’s protests, “I have another friend who just sat down. She probably won’t mind sharing, if you don’t.”

“As long as I’m not imposing,” Raven said.

Cerise led her through the crowd to a table in the back corner and introduced her to Cedar, former roommate and painting major. Raven could have guessed the latter from the traces of paint freckling her dark skin. It was mostly concentrated around her hands and fingers, but there was a smear of green across her nose that made her look young and guileless.

“So how do you know Cerise?” Cedar asked.

“We worked on the same senior film,” Raven said.

“Oh, she told me about that,” Cedar said. “It’s the one with the director who ordered pizza and ambushed her when she went to deliver it, right?” Her eyes went wide. “I’m sorry, was that rude?”

Raven laughed. “No, you’re right,” she said. “That’s pretty much exactly how it happened.”

“And you’re a film major?”

“Sound design,” Raven said. “I’m still pretty new, though, I just switched at the beginning of the year.”

“That’s really cool,” Cedar said. “And you’re already working on a film?”

“Let’s just say my recruitment wasn’t too different from Cerise’s,” Raven said. “Apple has a very clear vision and she’s willing to work for it.”

The food arrived, and they kept talking between mouthfuls. Raven liked Cedar, who reminded her of Apple in her optimism, but was far more laidback. She was a transfer and a junior, and also responsible for most of the murals on the very walls that surrounded them.

“Are you serious?” Raven surveyed the murals, an unusual but eye-pleasing mix of landscapes, reproductions of famous paintings, and abstract imagery of flames and chili peppers. She turned to look at a pepper next to her head, the size of her hand with every little blemish and highlight picked out in delicate strokes of paint. “How long did all this take you?”

“Not long,” Cedar said. “I don’t need very much sleep.”

“Well if you were doing this on no sleep I’d have to take your word for it,” Raven said. “It looks amazing.”

Eventually, the customers cleared up, and Cerise joined them at the table during slower parts of the night. The dialogue drifted away from school and work, moving into lighter topics. Cedar invited them to karaoke night at a bar several streets down, at some unspecified point in the future. Cerise agreed to a night out but refused to sing. Raven mentioned her years in choir and her switch to playing instruments instead.

It was strange to realize that talking to someone just for the pleasure of it was not how Raven normally dealt in conversation. By the time the restaurant closed, she was feeling oddly energetic, despite the late hour.

Must be the sleep she was actually getting. She’d better enjoy that while it lasted.

*

_Backstory: Professor Black Hole does this thing where he gives pizza coupons to the top three scorers on every exam. Probably he still does it, I don’t know. Of course, since I’m terrible at architecture and I hate it, there was basically no chance for me to get one of those coupons. And I’m not exactly sure why, but my little teenage brain decided that I wasn’t going to eat at that particular pizza place until I’d earned it. Which sucked, because that particular pizza place is also the best pizza place in town._

_I’d kind of given up on it, honestly. And I figured it’d be cheating to go after I quit architecture. So there I was, completely missing out, until two months ago, on the first day of shooting Roommate’s film._

_That’s right, Internet, the particular pizza place is where Pizza Girl works. Small world, huh?_

_Okay not really because Roommate has always been quality over quantity so of course she’d order the best pizza for the film. Whatever._

_The point is, this particular pizza is special in my heart and it’s always delicious and satisfying. The end._

*

**_Anonymous asked: hahaha that’s so great you and pizza girl are otp! also you should totally call him professor pizza now_ **

_I’ve been told my naming scheme is confusing enough, so suddenly changing someone’s nickname is probably not going to help. Also, why do people keep thinking me and Pizza Girl are a thing?_

*

Apple’s new edit had stalled at the finish line. It wasn’t a problem with the scene they’d just shot; Dexter’s earnest personality played very well on camera and Apple had managed to keep him from looking cross-eyed even when he couldn’t focus on anything. That part was done and locked. In fact, the problem was with the very first shot of the film.

“I don’t get it,” Raven said, looking over Apple’s shoulder at the stock footage onscreen, an establishing shot of the queen’s castle. “You had this exact same clip in the first edit, and now you decide you don’t like it?”

“The camera doesn’t move in far enough,” Apple said. “The jump to the second shot is too far; it makes the cut awkward.” She hit the spacebar, playing the sequence. “See?”

Raven didn’t, but that was why Apple was the director. “So I guess that means I’m not getting the film for a while, then?”

“Would you rather I give it to you now, and then turn around and change it again?” Apple asked.

Raven sighed. “Why don’t you just zoom it in a little more? Cover up the pixels with a motion blur.”

“It’s not that simple,” Apple explained. “Blowing up the picture doesn’t look the same as physically moving the camera. The foreground and background don’t shift the same way.”

“What else can you do?” Raven asked. “Go find a castle and rent a helicopter to—Apple. Really?”

“I don’t see the problem,” Apple said rebelliously.

“You don’t think it’s a bit much?” Raven said. “Besides, they don’t make castles like that around here.”

“I’m not too picky about the castle’s design,” Apple dismissed the concern. “The ideal doesn’t exist, so settling on a different style isn’t a huge sacrifice.”

“What’s the ideal?” Raven asked curiously.

Apple navigated to the inspiration folder on her hard drive. “Poppy and Lizzie came up with this,” she said, opening an image file. It was a sketch of a castle rooted more in fantasy than history, with unreasonably tall spires and an irregular outer wall that turned at odd angles around the castle proper. “If we had more time, I would make the entire shot CG, but Humphrey isn’t a modeler and he’s tied up with the mirror effects already.”

“Hm,” Raven said thoughtfully, “send me this picture. And don’t go booking that helicopter yet.”

“Why?” Apple asked, pulling up her email. “What do you need it for?”

Raven said, “I’m going to see about building you a model.”

Two hours later, she greatly regretted saying that she would build Apple a model. When she was still in architecture, Raven had taken a single class that had included 3-D modeling as part of the curriculum. Somehow, she’d imagined that this qualified her to make assets at a professional level, and she’d been very wrong. The software was a lot less intuitive than she remembered, and it didn’t help that she had to design a building out of a two-dimensional fantasy sketch.

“I’m out, I was out, how did I get sucked back in again…” she muttered, staring miserably at the computer screen. A couple of other students looked at her, but she ignored them. The architecture building had already seen more than its fair share of breakdowns; one more wouldn’t hurt.

Heavy footsteps crossed the hall and stopped behind her. Raven continued staring at the monitor, refusing to be judged.

“That thing looks like it would fall over if you breathed on it,” said Professor Badwolf. He wasn’t wrong; the castle was tall, spidery, and asymmetrical because she wasn’t done building the base yet.

She wasn’t done building most of it yet. It was less a model and more a bunch of stuck-together shapes.

“I’m modeling in a gravity-free environment,” Raven said. “It’ll be fine.”

“Didn’t you say you were done with architecture?” Badwolf asked. “I mean, I wouldn’t call that architecture in the strictest sense, but…”

“It’s just for my roommate’s film,” Raven said with a sigh. “Her opening shot is a castle that doesn’t actually exist.”

“That’s a castle?”

Ouch.

Badwolf laughed at the look on Raven’s face, which didn’t exactly endear him to her in that moment. “Well, if it’s not for your grade…Cerise,” he said, raising his voice, “come over here and help this poor kid out.”

To Raven’s surprise, Cerise slouched out from behind a bank of computers, muttering something under her breath.

“Hi,” Raven said. “You’re in the program?”

“Only part-time,” Cerise said, giving Badwolf a vicious side-eye.

“And still one of the best,” Badwolf said cheerfully. “Have fun, girls.”

“Sure thing, _professor_ ,” Cerise said. Badwolf huffed a laugh and continued on towards his office.

“You don’t have to help,” Raven said. “If you have anything better to do—”

“I don’t mind,” Cerise said. “Besides, this won’t take too long.”

Jeez. She and Badwolf really had a talent for those offhanded sucker punches.

“You just seemed pretty unhappy with Professor Badwolf for volunteering you,” Raven said.

Cerise groaned and yanked the hood of her jacket over her head. “He’s embarrassing,” she mumbled, clearly wishing she could change the subject.

Raven obliged, showing Cerise the sketch and explaining what Apple needed out of it. Cerise barely even glanced at it before diving in, and, to Raven’s eternal shame, blocked out the basic structure in just a few minutes. It took longer to model the more detailed pieces, but there was no contesting Cerise’s skill, or Badwolf’s claim that she was one of the best.

About a day earlier than expected, Raven had a complete and perfect 3-D model of the queen’s castle.

“Cerise, you’re amazing,” she said, rotating it in the viewing window. “Thank you.”

Cerise ducked her head, hiding beneath her hood. “You’re welcome.”

“So how do you add texture?” Raven asked.

“Texture?”

“You know.” Raven gestured to the model. “To make it look realistic. Less smooth, like actual stone.”

Cerise stared at her. “We use these as fancy blueprints, Raven. We don’t really need texture.”

“Ohhh,” Raven said.

*

_So here’s a story about how I’m an idiot:_

_Roommate wanted this specific establishing shot for her film and was totally thinking about filming it herself, even though it would destroy all semblance of a budget. And I told her no, I was an architecture major for three years, I can just make a 3-D model of the building based on the concept you want and you can do the scene completely CG exactly the way you want it._

_Long story short, I can’t build 3-D models. Pizza Girl had to help me (she’s studying architecture and actually seems to like it) and we ended up with this perfect little castle that matched the sketch exactly, except that architecture students don’t need to create the same level of detail as someone in VSFX or animation. So we had no color, no texture, and no idea what to do next. Obviously, Roommate can’t use something that looks so fake in her film, so I basically just wasted Pizza Girl’s afternoon and Roommate is going to go rent a helicopter now._

_Part two of the story is about a genuine, real-life hero: Pizza Girl has a friend who’s a painting major now, but spent a couple of years taking classes to figure out what she wanted to do. So she has connections with a bunch of departments, including industrial design, and she managed to get our computer model printed out on the 3-D printer._

_We’re just going to make a little physical set, and Roommate can film it herself instead of passing it off to an animator. Genuine Hero even offered to paint the castle and backdrop, which is honestly going to look a million times better than CG-ing the whole thing, because she is an amazing painter. Considering how the day started out, I’m pretty happy with this result._

_Moral of the story: make lots of talented friends so they can bail you out when you bite off more than you can chew. Also, maybe it’s a good idea to not bite off more than you can chew._

_P.S. I already know what you’re all thinking so you can just shut up about me and Pizza Girl._


	6. Postproduction 3-2

Once she’d received the miniature castle set, Apple knocked out the last bit of editing and passed the film on to Raven. The first part was largely the same, and Raven was able to sync up her previous progress without too many problems. Of course, the scene between Snow and the prince was completely different, and the terrible sappy ballad underneath it had been replaced by something much more upbeat and almost as terrible.

Raven contemplated the music as she methodically dragged sound effects into the timeline. She eventually decided that it was so bad that it had to be filler, and it needed to be replaced. The beginning of the film could use some ambiance as well, so the song wouldn’t start so abruptly. She had access to a couple of sound libraries through the school’s license, but after a quick search, Raven found that they weren’t very useful.

That left her with a few options. One, find some free music online, which would probably be as bad as or even worse than her current options. Two, find some good music online, which would probably be pretty expensive.

Three, compose her own music.

She borrowed some equipment and spent the weekend with headphones on, plunking away at her keyboard. The Monday after, Apple asked for a status update.

“I’m pretty much done up to when Snow is poisoned,” Raven said, “and I have a lot of the effects in the second half. Want to listen?”

Apple listened. She paused a few minutes in and said, “Can you do something a little different for the mirror sounds? Especially when he appears.”

“Different how?” Raven asked.

“Well, I like the magic effect, but I think it could be a little more omniscient,” Apple said thoughtfully. She hit play.

“Um,” said Raven.

“Oh, where did you get the score from?” Apple asked. “It fits very well.”

“I wrote it,” Raven said.

Apple took the headphones off and stared. “Really?”

Raven nodded.

“It sounds great,” Apple said. The scene changed to Snow waking up, and Apple winced. “You can take out the background music and score the rest of it, right?”

“That’s the plan,” Raven said.

“Good,” Apple said. “I wasn’t really thinking about scoring when I put that track in and now I can tell it doesn’t really fit. How long do you think it will take?”

Raven, still reeling from the idea that Apple had not meant the terrible music as filler, took a moment to answer. “A week and a half? Two weeks?”

“Thank you,” Apple said. “I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.”

Neither could Raven.

*

_What the hell am I supposed to do with “omniscient”?! What kind of direction is that?!_

_I think I’m going to have to ask Roommate to clarify but after seeing what Hair and Makeup did with instructions that were just as vague, I can’t shake the feeling that this is some kind of test. Not that Roommate is the type to do something like that, but._

_Yeah, remember when I said not getting out of the contract while I could was going to come back to bite me? I’ll give you fifty-fifty odds that this note drives me insane by the end of the week._

*

“Hey Maddie, what sound does an omniscient magic mirror make?” Raven asked.

“Hm,” said Maddie. “I’ve never heard that one before. I don’t know, what sound _does_ it make?”

“It’s not a joke,” Raven explained, “it’s the note I got for a sound effect. I need to make the way the magic mirror appears sound more omniscient.”

“Oh!” said Maddie. “Well, I’d have to get back to you on that.”

Compose a ten-minute score for a short film with only rusty piano lessons and less than a year of training in sound design? No problem. All Raven needed was a few tutorials, an example or two, and a little time to experiment. She’d finished mixing everything the day before, and thought it sounded pretty good. Much better than the filler track, at least.

But her promised two-week deadline was approaching and Raven was still struggling with the one sound effect.

Omniscient. All-knowing. Wise. Pansophical. Raven had looked up the word in a dictionary, a thesaurus, and an encyclopedia. She’d tried saying it backwards and with different inflections, hoping that she would somehow be inspired. She’d even gone to the sound effects library and straight out typed it into the search bar. No results, of course. She’d only started asking around as a last desperate act.

Raven sighed as she poured three shots of espresso into a large cup and started steaming milk for the next order. Tourist season was in full swing, so they hardly ever got a quiet moment anymore, but it wasn’t enough to take her mind off the problem. She spent the rest of the shift brooding, which actually wasn’t too different from how she’d been spending the previous day or two.

She was packed up and ready to leave when, out of the blue, Maddie opened her mouth and released a sound unlike anything Raven had ever heard.

“What was that?” Raven demanded once she’d gotten over the shock.

“The sound an omniscient magic mirror makes,” Maddie said.

Raven blinked, then rewound and replayed the moment in her head. The sound had been…a low, glissando-esque warble, with a higher tone behind it and just a hint of…smugness? Raven couldn’t imagine how anyone would make a sound like that without multiple tracks and copious amounts of waveform editing. And yet, somehow, it was exactly the sound she needed.

“Two questions, Maddie,” she said. “Can you do that again? And are you free, like, right now, to record it?”

The answer to both questions was _yes_ , and that was how Raven found herself lining her closet with the contents of her bed and closing Maddie inside it with a microphone.

“We’re recording, so whenever you’re ready,” she said.

There was the sound again, making a perfect little waveform on her laptop. Raven saved it and opened the closet door. “Thanks, Maddie. You’re a lifesaver.”

“No problem!” Maddie said brightly, gathering up the blankets.

They finished remaking the bed and Raven was showing Maddie out when Apple’s return almost caused a collision in the front doorway.

“Oh! Excuse me—”

“No problem!” Maddie skipped back and let Apple enter, followed by Darling.

“Hey, you’re back,” Raven said. “Maddie, this is my roommate Apple, and—”

“Darling! We met at the coffee shop. And it’s nice to meet you, Apple!” Maddie bounded forward to enthusiastically shake hands. “Raven talks about you all the time!”

“She does?”

“I do?”

“Sure!” Maddie said. “I’ve heard a lot about your film. It sounds like loads of fun!”

“Maddie was helping me record one of the sound effects,” Raven explained.

Apple smiled. “Well, you can come to the screening when it’s finished and see for yourself.”

Maddie went on her way and Raven turned from the door to see Apple, still smiling in a mysterious and slightly alarming manner. Behind her, Darling looked amused.

“What?”

“All the time?”

“Hey you wanted the final mix today right well I better go do that and let you two get back to whatever you’re doing bye.”

*

_I’ve just come to the realization that Roommate’s film is the only social life I have. Everyone I know is involved with it in some way or another, even Hype got in on it today as a foley artist. Apparently I have nothing else to do with my life? How embarrassing. But as sad as that is, Internet, the sadder part is that my social life is still in better shape than it was last year._

_I finished the final mix today. Roommate’s listening to it right now to see if there are any changes she wants to make. But if there aren’t, then I think the film might be done? Wow, it’s weird even thinking it._

*

The film was done. Raven went to Red Hot in a daze. If ever there was a time she deserved a piece of pizza, this was it.

Cerise brought over her order with an extra soda and an expression of concern. “You look out of it. Are you going to—”

“I’m not going to faint again, jeez,” Raven said. “When are you going to let that go?”

“Never,” Cerise said bluntly. “So what happened?”

“Snowfall is finally finished,” Raven said. “Apple’s going to show it to her class tomorrow. I’m kind of freaking out, is that weird?”

“I mean, a little, I think,” Cerise said, “considering it’s not your film. But you were working on it for the entire school year, weren’t you?”

“Almost,” Raven said.

“Then it’s not _that_ weird.”

“Thanks,” Raven said, rolling her eyes. And then, more sincerely, “You know, I’m glad this place delivers.”

Cerise seemed to catch her meaning. “Me too.” She glanced around the restaurant, then slid into the booth across from Raven. “I’m actually going to be taking a break from working here for a while.”

“Cool,” Raven said. “Or, is it cool?”

“I want to focus more on school,” Cerise said. “So I’m taking classes full-time starting in the summer. Hopefully I can get my degree in a couple more years.”

“In architecture, right?” Raven said. “Don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you.”

Cerise laughed.

“Congratulations, though,” Raven said. “Why the sudden change?”

“I was actually thinking about it for a while,” Cerise said. “But I felt like I’d made a commitment to Red Hot already. And then I saw what you were doing in sound design—”

“And you thought you could hardly do worse than me?”

Cerise flicked a straw wrapper at Raven and nailed her in the forehead. “I thought if you could still do so well after switching majors so late then I was allowed to change my mind too. So I talked to my parents about it and they rearranged the schedule.”

Raven rubbed her forehead and wondered if she was really the best role model for getting out of a commitment. Surely Cerise should have reconsidered after the 3-D modeling fiasco.

“Anyway, I’m off in an hour,” Cerise said, sliding out of the booth. “If you’re not busy, we can go celebrate.”

Cerise went off to take care of other customers and Raven ate her pizza. Twenty minutes later, she was finished with her pizza and slowly drinking her soda while she waited for Cerise. At least Red Hot had plenty of visual interest, between Cedar’s murals, the dough-spinning chefs visible in the kitchen, and Professor Badwolf coming in the door—

Raven fought the urge to duck under the table. Professors needed to eat too, no big deal. Badwolf didn’t even look around; he went straight for the register to pick up takeout.

“Thanks, honey,” he said to the familiar waitress—

Wait—

Wasn’t that—

*

_Oh my god Pizza Girl’s mom is Mrs. Black Hole. Holy shit Professor Black Hole iS PIZZA GIRL’S DAD????_

_You win, shipper anon. Professor Pizza it is._

*

Snowfall was a hit. Apple collected all the compliments it had earned—stunning costumes, beautiful cinematography, moving story, and the acting, wow—and passed them on to their instigators.

Raven received a “great score, and the sound design was the best in the class” as well as an invitation to the viewing party.

“Wait, what?” she said.

“Saturday night,” Apple repeated. “I booked one of the screening rooms in—”

“No, before that,” Raven said. “You said Snowfall had the best sound in the class?”

“Yes,” Apple said.

“The whole class?”

“Yes,” Apple said again.

“How is that—that’s not possible,” Raven said. “Apple, it’s only my first year. Aren’t the other sound designers seniors?”

“I don’t see what that has to do with it,” Apple said.

“You don’t see how—”

“You’re talented, Raven,” Apple said. “And I saw how much time and effort you were putting into your work. Are you really so surprised to be recognized for it?”

Yes, honestly, she was. For all her determination to follow through on her decision to change majors, the most Raven had expected was not embarrassing herself or Apple in comparison to the other films.

“Come to the screening on Saturday,” Apple said. “You’ll see.”

Raven went to the screening on Saturday, bringing Maddie, Cerise, and Cedar with her. They watched the film on a big screen with a real sound system and all of them—along with everyone else in the room—were blown away.

When the projector turned off, Apple stood up from her seat in the first row. She opened her mouth to speak but was drowned out by the wave of cheers and applause that swept through the room. It took her several tries to tell them that they would be moving to one of the studios for the afterparty.

“Wow, you guys, that was amazing,” Cedar gushed. “Cerise, you looked super cool!”

Cerise ducked into her jacket, embarrassed. “But the first shot, though—the stuff you painted was pretty great too.”

“So Raven, how does it feel to see the final product after everything you’ve done?” Maddie asked.

Raven smiled and held open the studio door. “Better than I imagined.”

They went inside for food, drinks, and mingling. The large studio was decently filled, as everyone who’d worked on the film had been invited and it seemed that all of them had decided to attend. Well, except for one.

“Of course I invited Daring,” Apple said. “I thought he’d be interested in seeing it even when we cut his scenes. But his girlfriend graduated today, so he couldn’t make it.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Raven said carefully, “but aren’t you his girlfriend?”

“Oh, we broke up two months ago,” Apple said breezily, and went off to check on the food table.

“Okay,” Raven said. That was around the time they filmed pickups. Was Daring more bothered about them than Apple had reported? After some thought, Raven came to the conclusion that since Apple was treating it as a non-issue, she’d put it out of her mind altogether.

But really, two months and Apple had shown no signs of a breakup? Raven couldn’t help her curiosity. “Darling,” she said quietly, “do you know why Apple and Daring broke up?”

“They broke up?” Darling said, shocked.

“Guess not,” Raven said. Apparently the Charming siblings needed to shoot each other an email once in a while because this was honestly just sad.

Darling immediately went off towards the food table and was replaced by Dexter.

“Hey Raven,” he said.

“Hey,” Raven said. “You looked great up there.”

“Yeah, I was pretty surprised myself,” Dexter said. “And you—well, you did the score, right? I really liked it, I think it added a lot.”

“Thanks,” Raven said, trying to keep her grin under control.

“So do you write music a lot, or—”

“No, not really,” Raven said. “This was my first time composing anything.”

“Your first time?” Dexter said, impressed.

“I mean, I did a little practice piece that didn’t end up in the final cut,” Raven corrected herself.

“Can I hear it? I mean—” Dexter backpedaled at Raven’s frown. “I don’t have to if you don’t want me to.”

“No, I think I do have it on me,” Raven said, pulling out her phone. “It’s not very long though.” She found the video and passed it over to Dexter. “This was from before pickups,” she explained, “when we were still doing a romantic relationship between Snow and the prince.”

As Dexter watched the video, his jaw dropped and he began to look very, very uncomfortable.

“What, is it that bad?” Raven asked, bemused.

“What? No, no! I mean—yes—well, the music’s great,” Dexter babbled. “I’m just—I—uh—”

“Dexter!” Darling’s intervention snapped him out of his stuttering loop. “Are you okay? You look a little sick, you aren’t still queasy from the heart scene, are you?”

He wordlessly passed over the phone. Darling took it and, at Raven’s confused and permissive shrug, played the video. A moment later, she was looking a little queasy herself.

“What are you watching, Darling?” Apple appeared with a drink in each hand. She peered over Darling’s shoulder and stifled a disbelieving giggle. “Raven, did you do this?”

“I’m not exactly sure what’s happening here,” Raven admitted.

“Well,” Apple said after a moment, when it was clear that Darling and Dexter were both too horrified to speak. “You do know how sound design is a useful tool for showing emotions that aren’t always revealed in the visuals?”

“Yes,” Raven said cautiously.

“You…made the relationship between Daring and Darling look…very romantic.”

“Oh,” said Raven.

“I’m not going to be able to look at him for months,” Darling said, tapping rapidly at the screen. “I’m deleting this; the world can just forget that Daring and I were ever in the same film together.”

At that moment, Blondie’s projector of blooper reel stills changed to a shot from Darling and Daring’s first failed take. Darling sighed as Dexter choked on a laugh.

“Well, if it had to be something,” she said in defeat. “At least the video is gone.”

“And now Raven knows to use her skills responsibly,” Apple said. “Right, Raven?”

“Sure,” Raven said, wondering if she should mention that she still had the original project file on a hard drive somewhere.

Darling took one of the cups from Apple’s hand and chugged it.

*

_Final verdict: everyone loves the film. Roommate is going to do what directors do and take it to festivals and stuff, I guess. If it gets any recognition, we’ll all have something nice to put on our resumes. Even if it doesn’t, I have an opportunity to get a scholarship that will definitely help out with tuition._

_It’s weird, I still have a week left in the school year, but it really feels like I’m done. I still have to study for finals because it would be way too embarrassing to have to repeat a class after all this. Roommate basically has a guaranteed A for her thesis but I’m not that lucky._

_And I just realized that Roommate is graduating so I’m probably going to need to find another person or three to help pay the rent. Too bad the number of people I talk to on a regular basis just plummeted into the single digits._

*

“Raven, do you want a ticket to graduation?”

Raven looked up from her computer. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind going,” she said, “but maybe you should give your extras to someone who needs them more. Doesn’t Briar have a lot of brothers?”

“She does,” Apple said, “but I thought you might want to hear our keynote speaker.”

“Who is it?” Raven asked.

Apple stared at her. “Well,” she said, “it’s your mother.”

Raven stared back.

“Eva Queen,” Apple clarified. “It was just recently announced. She is your mother, isn’t she? I thought it might be a good idea to look her up after I noticed you two had the same last name.”

“Um, yeah,” Raven said dumbly.

Apple apparently took this as an affirmative for both questions instead of just the most recent one, and put a ticket on Raven’s desk. “Oh, and Briar wants to throw a graduation party here, is that alright?”

“Sure,” said Raven.

“It’s after the ceremony. You’re welcome to join us, if you want.”

Raven nodded. Apple went back downstairs and Raven looked at the ticket.

Her mother was coming _here_?!

She grabbed her phone and dialed.

“Queen.”

“Mom, are you giving the keynote speech for graduation?”

“Yes, Raven, I am.”

Raven fell back onto her bed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, sweetheart, you made it very clear the last time we spoke that you didn’t want to hear from me, and I hadn’t heard any differently from you until now.”

What? Raven pulled her phone away from her ear and put it on speaker, navigating over to her call history.

“I take it this means we’re on speaking terms again?”

And the most recent call to her mother was…St. Patrick’s Day. She did not remember that at all. Shit.

“Well if it means some advance notice next time, then yeah,” Raven said.

“Are you still upset about what I said?”

“…No.”

Raven heard a sigh. “Honey, you were clearly drunk. Do you even _remember_ what I said?”

“…No,” Raven said again.

“Then maybe it would be better to discuss this face to face. I’m flying in just before the speech, but maybe after all of that fuss we could sit down for dinner.”

Dinner with her mother? And knowing her, probably at some overly fancy and expensive place that set the table with wine _and_ water glasses and required formal wear. There was no way that wouldn’t end badly.

“I already have plans,” Raven said. It wasn’t even a lie; she’d already accepted Apple’s invitation to the graduation party.

“What about brunch the day after?”

Brunch was even worse than dinner.

“I might be busy then, too.”

Another sigh, this one more exasperated. “Raven, if you’re not willing to meet me halfway—”

Raven said, “Listen, Mom, I have to go. Maybe I’ll catch you when you’re here. Bye.” She hung up. The phone went on her nightstand. She buried her face in her pillow and stayed there until she fell asleep.

*

_Okay, Internet. I don’t remember what I’ve told you about all of this, and maybe you’ve already figured it out, but here’s the full story, for the record. My mom wants me to follow in her footsteps and study architecture. I did that for three years before I realized I hated it and switched out. Mom didn’t like that idea and cut me off, apparently so I could get an idea of how hard it would be to make it in sound design._

_She got into my head, I guess. I still went through with it, but I was scared of not being good enough. Even when Roommate asked me to help on her film, I kept thinking I was going to screw everything up and get kicked out of the department or something, and I’d have to go back and ask for help._

_And then we finished the film. I told you guys that everyone loved it, but I didn’t tell you that it had the best sound design in the class. Me, practically a freshman, against some of the best seniors in the department._

_So, guess what, Mom? I don’t need your approval on what I do with my life. I’m pretty sure I can make it on my own._

*

Raven ended up giving her ticket to Cerise and staying home for the ceremony. She didn’t want to see her friends graduate, anyway, it left an anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach like when all the series regulars left her favorite TV show and it never quite recovered afterwards.

She was lying on her bed when the sound of the door unlocking rang up the staircase. Raven got up and went downstairs.

“Hey, Apple, congratulations.”

“Raven!” Apple looked surprised. “You made it home quickly.”

“I, uh, actually didn’t go,” Raven said.

“Oh,” Apple said. “Did you watch the stream, at least?”

Raven suddenly felt guilty. “No. Sorry I didn’t get to see you walk.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Apple hastily reassured her. “It’s just that your mother gave a very moving speech, and I wish you hadn’t missed it.”

“I doubt I missed much, my mom gives me speeches all the time,” Raven said.

Apple looked doubtful. “I think the school might have recorded it—”

“It’s fine,” Raven said. “Do you need help with the party?”

Apple hesitated. “Not yet,” she said at last. “Briar’s coming over in about twenty minutes, if you could help out then?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Raven said, and went back to her room.

Twenty minutes later, she came out to help set up finger foods and memory boards. Apple and Briar had been roommates for years, so there were plenty of pictures of them as freshman, with occasional attendance from Ashlynn. Blondie joined them in sophomore year, and was followed by several others who appeared with varying levels of frequency.

Senior year featured on-set candid photos, interspersed with other college kid activities and about a million selfies. Raven found one of the rare photos that she was in and wished she’d agreed to take a few more.

Guests arrived sporadically as the afternoon turned into night. They wandered through the lower floor, picking up refreshments from the kitchen and looking through the memory boards in the living room. The backyard had a merrily burning fire pit for destroying old homework and syllabi. Apple and Briar were having a great time playing host, and everyone was in high spirits.

Almost everyone. Raven had accidentally procured a very dark and expensive-looking craft beer and was determined to finish it now that she’d started. And Faybelle was visible through the window, glaring into the fire and holding a bottle of tequila.

“Raven?” Apple appeared at the table. “Do you have a minute?”

“Sure,” Raven said. She was up and following Apple before she thought to ask what for, and then was distracted when she realized she’d abandoned her beer. Oh well. The stuff was a little too bitter for her taste anyway.

Her mother was waiting for her at the front door. “Hello, Raven.”

Raven did a double take. “Mom, what are you doing here?”

“Apple invited me,” Eva said. “I was hoping we could talk.”

“Um,” Raven said. There was no easy escape through a dial tone this time. She sighed. “Let’s go upstairs.”

Raven had hoped going upstairs, where there were no witnesses, would be less awkward. Sitting in her desk chair with her mother perched on the side of her bed, she realized she was very wrong. She wished she’d thought to bring the beer.

Eva said, “I’m sorry.”

Raven asked, “For what?”

“For ever making you think that I didn’t want you as a daughter.”

Raven grimaced. “I guess that’s something that I said on St. Patrick’s Day.”

“Among other things.” Eva’s defeated posture was putting wrinkles in her expensive suit. “I hadn’t realized that you felt that way. And I admit, telling you grow up and start thinking about what’s best for your future was not the best reaction to the situation, so I’m sorry for that as well. I have no right to make those decisions for you. Can you forgive me?”

Raven stared at her. “Is that it?” she said, disbelieving. “One drunken conversation that I don’t even remember, and suddenly you’re a completely different person?” Her fingers clenched in the armrests. “I don’t get it.”

“Raven—”

“What changed? What did a bottle of whiskey do to change your mind that I couldn’t do in twenty-two years?!”

Eva reached out, but Raven swung the chair around to put her back to the bed. She heard a sigh. “I saw your film. Snowfall.”

What? Raven’s brain locked and stuttered, unable to reconcile the concepts of Snowfall and her mother.

“Your roommate sent it to me,” Eva continued. “She told me you probably wouldn’t show me yourself, but it was definitely worth seeing. I watched it, and…” A long pause, a quiet sniff.

Raven whirled back around. Her mother wasn't actually crying, but she definitely looked a little teary-eyed.

“It was beautiful. I wondered why Apple thought you wouldn’t send it to me. Why you didn’t. And I realized it was because you didn’t think it was an accomplishment, or at least not one I would appreciate. And that was my fault. I wanted you to be an architect because I knew you would be able to make a career from it. But this is more important to you, isn’t it? You could never put yourself into a blueprint, but that film, your amazing film—”

“Snowfall isn’t just mine,” Raven said. “It’s all of ours—”

“But that doesn’t change what you’ve done to it,” Eva said. “You’re an incredible sound designer, Raven, and I know you’ll only keep improving. I’m proud to call you my daughter.”

“I—” Raven swallowed. Cleared her throat, rubbed her eyes. Eva waited for her to collect herself. Finally, Raven managed a shaky breath and a smile. “Thanks, Mom.”

They hadn’t been the hugging kind of family for a long time, but they managed two (brief, wonderful) seconds before going back downstairs.

*

_She’s!! Proud!!! Of ME!_

*

The next day, Faybelle found out that she’d been partying two rooms away from Raven’s mother without getting to meet her, and completely flipped her lid.

“Eva Queen!” she screeched. “Do you understand what this means to me? I _literally just_ finished my thesis on how her buildings impact city skylines _around the world_!”

“Don’t make it sound like it was some kind of terrible research project,” Briar said, yawning on the couch. “All you did was take pictures.”

“Raven,” Apple said.

Raven was still trying to figure out if Faybelle had spent the night on the floor or if for some reason she’d felt the need to come by at eight in the morning, still wearing yesterday’s clothes. Or she could have shared the couch with Briar, but the cushions were pretty narrow and Faybelle didn’t seem the cuddling type.

“You are missing the point!” Faybelle said.

“And your crush is still on speaker,” Briar said.

Raven choked as Faybelle spluttered, “Her designs photograph _really well_ , okay?!”

Apple retrieved the phone from Raven’s hand and took it off speaker, putting it to her ear. “Eva? Yes, it’s me. Thank you for the invitation, but I’m afraid I already have a prior engagement. Yes, of course. I’ll be sure to let her know.” She hung up.

“You just turned down brunch with Eva Queen!” Faybelle accused.

“I do have other plans,” Apple said mildly, returning the phone and going back into the kitchen. “Raven, there wasn’t an opening at eleven thirty so it’s been moved to eleven instead.”

“What plans could you possibly have that can’t be canceled?”

Raven finally recovered enough to say, “Thanks, Apple,” before giving up on the escalating situation and retreating back to her room.

Her bed was soft and inviting, and still pleasantly warm from when she’d gotten up to go find out Apple’s availability for brunch. Raven thought about going back to sleep for another hour or so, but didn’t get further than flopping down on top of the covers before her phone buzzed.

One new text from Darling Charming. It was a photo of a sleeveless white sundress, and the words _Do you think this is too much for a casual day between friends?_

Raven texted back, _Apple’s wearing something like that so it’ll probably be fine._

Darling replied a moment later. _Should I pick something else then? I don’t want anyone to think we’re matching on purpose._

_Darling you look good in anything. It’s fine.  
_ _You’re being nervous today._

_It’s our first time out since I found out she and Daring broke up._

_Are you going to make a move?_

_No!  
_ _I just don’t want to overdo it._

_Why not?_

There was a long pause. Raven watched the little ellipses blink as Darling considered and reconsidered her response.

_You think I should?_

_You just graduated. When else will you get the chance?_

Apple and Darling’s coffee outing was at nine. Raven peered downstairs at eight fifty-five and was relieved to find that Briar and Faybelle had vacated the premises. She sat on the second-floor landing and kept an eye on the door through the balusters. Maybe it wasn’t any of her business, but she was invested anyway.

At eight fifty-eight, there was a knock at the door. Apple, holding a picnic basket, came from the living room to answer it. Darling stood in the doorway, wearing the white sundress with her blonde hair braided up around her head.

“Good morning, Darling,” Apple said.

Darling said, “Apple, I like you.”

“I would hope so,” Apple said, taken aback.

“I don’t want to go on a coffee date with you. Can this be a real date instead?”

Silence. Raven wished her vantage point gave her a better view of Apple’s face.

And then—was she _laughing_? Raven jumped up, about to run downstairs.

“That’s perfect!” Apple said brightly. “I was just about to ask you the same thing!”

Darling lit up in a mix of delight and relief. “You—really?” She glanced up at Raven, who gave her two thumbs up.

“Well, yes,” Apple admitted. She hefted the picnic basket and took her keys off the hook on the wall. “Honestly, I’ve been wanting to ask for a while, but I thought it might be better to wait until the film wrapped…”

The door shut and locked behind them. A wide smile grew across Raven’s face.

*

_Roommate’s film is a literal fountain of miracles. Since I started working on it I’ve made actual friends, and I’ve started getting attention in my sound design career, and because of it my mom and I are somehow back on good terms, which I honestly thought was impossible. And Roommate and Perfectly Charming just became a couple! PC was crushing hard for months but Roommate didn’t want to complicate things until after wrapping the film. It still sucks that I’ll never work on it again but at least I can be happy about it ending now._


	7. Epilogue

**_Conversation with Group: Snowfall Cast and Crew_ **

_Apple: Hello everyone, I have great news: Professor Nimble just contacted me and asked to run Snowfall in the school film fest! I’m going to be in town for the full eight days. If you’re available, let’s meet up!_

_Blondie: Yes!_

_Ashlynn: Congratulations, Apple! Let’s definitely figure out a good time to meet._

_Holly: OMG_

_Holly: I’m coming for the film fest too!_

_Blondie: That’s almost all of the preproduction crew. Briar, can you make it? Or are you still in Siberia?_

_Briar: Nepal now, actually_

_Briar: Made it to the big leagues, huh, Apple? Congrats._

_Briar: And yeah, I’ll clear my schedule. End of October, right?_

_Apple: Right! Although I don’t know if the school festival is exactly considered the big leagues, but any distribution is good._

_Briar: So is this preprod only or is there room for production crew too? Got someone I might want to invite._

_Apple: I guess it depends on where we’re meeting._

_Apple: Maybe we can reserve a back room at a restaurant?_

_Raven: Your old place is open for a reunion party if you want. But if you’re staying the night, you’ll have to sleep on the couch._

_Apple: Are you sure, Raven? What about your roommates?_

_Raven: They don’t mind. Right, guys?_

_Maddie: :D I think it sounds like fun! :)_

_Cerise: Fine with me._

_Cedar: Nope, I don’t mind at all!_

_Raven: See? Plenty of room for everyone._

_Raven: Although I guess it might be nice to get some RSVPs. So far we have 6?_

_Kitty:_ (^ㅇωㅇ^)~

_Cerise: Kitty what does that even mean?_

*

**_Conversation with: Blondie Lockes_ **

_Blondie: Hi Raven._

_Blondie: I’m starting to work on pitches for my senior project and I was thinking about doing a documentary on Snowfall and its creation from concept all the way through post production. Would you be willing to sit for an interview? If you can’t or don’t want to be on camera, an audio or chat interview would be great as well. And I’d also appreciate if you have any behind-the-scenes photos or videos you’re willing to share. Let me know if you’re free, and thanks for your help!_

_Raven: You copy-pasted that, didn’t you._

_Blondie: I have a lot of crew to talk to!_

_Blondie: So?_

_Raven: Yeah, I guess you can interview me._

_Blondie: Great! We can arrange a more exact date once this gets approved._

_Blondie: Do you have any BTS footage?_

_Raven: Nothing you don’t already have._

_Raven: Well_

_Blondie: Well, what?_

_Raven: Maybe I kind of have a production diary?_

_Raven: I kept a blog that year. It’s not very thorough, though._

_Blondie: Anything helps. Can I look at it?_

_Raven: thenoblestblackbird on Tumblr and Twitter_

_Raven: Don’t judge me, okay?_

_Blondie: Thanks!_

*

**_Conversation with: Blondie Lockes_ **

_Blondie: Raven!_

_Blondie: Raven raven raven_

_Raven: What?_

_Blondie: Can you record your blog as voiceover for my doc?_

_Raven: What_

*

_Alright Internet, here it is, several months late but better late than never. The film is called Snowfall and it’s directed by Apple White._

_[Watch “Snowfall” on Vimeo]_

*

 **_secondary-me reblogged this post and added:_ ** _Wow everyone check out this amazing short film!_

 **_williamjacobs reblogged this post and added:_ ** _I can’t even articulate how moving and beautiful and just so well done this is. And it’s a senior film? The production value is just unbelievable. Film schools are really upping their game now._

 **_faybelle-thorn reblogged this post and added:_ ** _what the fuck kind of a nickname is outfoxed?!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking this through to the end! I'm a little surprised at how quickly I managed to get this out, but a lot of it is actually based on my college experience (the rest of it is based on idealism and wishful thinking).
> 
> I still have lots of headcanons and trivia I didn't manage to fit in here, so if you have questions about this AU or the real school behind the thin veneer of this fictional college, hit me up at [hoodhollow on Tumblr](https://hoodhollow.tumblr.com/ask).


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